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The City of God

Chapter 24.--Of the Prophets, Who Either Were the Last Among the Jews, or Whom the Gospel History Reports About the Time of Christ's Nativity.

But in that whole time after they returned from Babylon, after Malachi, Haggai, and Zechariah, who then prophesied, and Ezra, they had no prophets down to the time of the Saviour's advent except another Zechariah, the father of John, and Elisabeth his wife, when the nativity of Christ was already close at hand; and when He was already born, Simeon the aged, and Anna a widow, and now very old; and, last of all, John himself, who, being a young man, did not predict that Christ, now a young man, was to come, but by prophetic knowledge pointed Him out though unknown; for which reason the Lord Himself says, "The law and the prophets were until John." ¹ But the prophesying of these five is made known to us in the gospel, where the virgin mother of our Lord herself is also found to have prophesied before John. But this prophecy of theirs the wicked Jews do not receive; but those innumerable persons received it who from them believed the gospel. For then truly Israel was divided in two, by that division which was foretold by Samuel the prophet to king Saul as immutable. But even the reprobate Jews hold Malachi, Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra as the last received into canonical authority. For there are also writings of these, as of others, who being but a very few in the great multitude of prophets, have written those books which have obtained canonical authority, of whose predictions it seems good to me to put in this work some which pertain to Christ and His Church; and this, by the Lord's help, shall be done more conveniently in the following book, that we may not further burden this one, which is already too long.

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXIV: De prophetis, qui vel apud Iudaeos postremi fuerunt, vel quos circa tempus nativitatis Christi evangelica prodit historia.

Toto autem illo tempore, ex quo redierunt de Babylonia, post Malachiam, Aggaeum et Zachariam, qui tunc prophetauerunt, et Esdram non habuerunt prophetas usque ad Saluatoris aduentum) nisi alium Zachariam patrem Iohannis et Elisabeth eius uxorem, Christi natiuitate iam proxima, et eo iam nato Simeonem senem et Annam uiduam iamque grandaeuam et ipsum Iohannem nouissimum; qui iuuenis iam iuuenem Christum non quidem futurum praedixit, sed tamen incognitum prophetica cognitione monstrauit; propter quod ipse Dominus ait: Lex et prophetae usque ad Iohannem. Sed istorum quinque prophetatio ex euangelio nobis nota est, ubi et ipsa uirgo mater Domini ante Iohannem prophetasse inuenitur. Sed hanc istorum prophetiam Iudaei reprobi non accipiunt; acceperunt autem, qui ex eius innumerabiles euangelio crediderunt. Tunc enim uere Israel diuisus est in duo diuisione illa, quae per Samuelem prophetam Sauli regi est inmutabilis praenuntiata. Malachiam uero, Aggaeum, Zachariam et Esdram etiam Iudaei reprobi in auctoritatem diuinam receptos nouissimos habent. Sunt enim et scripta eorum, sicut aliorum, qui in magna multitudine prophetarum perpauci ea scripserunt, quae auctoritatem canonis obtinerent. De quorum praedictis, quae ad Christum ecclesiamque eius pertinent, nonnulla mihi in hoc opere uideo esse ponenda; quod commodius fiet adiuuante Domino sequenti libro, ne hunc tam prolixum ulterius oneremus.