Annotatio CCXXIII

”His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God, Mighty, Father of the world to come, Prince of peace.” — Isaiah 9:6

Jerome, in book 3 on Isaiah, notes that the Seventy Interpreters — terrified by the majesty of these words — did not dare manifestly to translate this prophecy of Isaiah, pronounced concerning the Messiah, Christ,¹ lest they be compelled openly to confess that Christ was to be called Wonderful, God, Mighty, Father of the world to come, Prince of peace; but for those six names they put others, which are not had in the Hebrew, writing in this manner: “His name shall be called the Angel of great counsel; and I will bring peace upon the princes, and health to him.” And yet now, in the vulgate Greek edition — which is believed to be [that] of the Seventy interpreters — there plainly appear [the words] which Jerome wonders [to be] changed or omitted. For thus is it found written in it:

Καλεῖται τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ μεγάλης βουλῆς ἄγγελος, Θαυμαστός, σύμβουλος, Θεὸς ἰσχυρός, ἐξουσιαστής, ἄρχων εἰρήνης, πατὴρ τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος· ἄξω γὰρ εἰρήνην ἐπὶ τοὺς ἄρχοντας, καὶ ὑγίειαν αὐτοῦ· καὶ μεγάλη ἡ ἀρχὴ αὐτοῦ, καὶ τῆς εἰρήνης αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν τέλος —

that is: “His name shall be called the Angel of great counsel, Wonderful, Counselor, God, Mighty, Having power, Prince of peace, Father of the world to come; for I will bring peace upon the princes, and his health; and great [is] his rule, and of his peace there is no end.” But that the true and emended version of the Seventy of old had [it] in this manner, Eusebius testifies, in book 7 of the Evangelical Demonstration, saying: “Therefore, according to the Seventy themselves, [there was foretold] not simply an Angel, but the Angel of great counsel, and Wonderful Counselor, and God Mighty, and Having power, and Prince of peace, and Father of the world to come, [who was] to arise at some time, and to be a little child.” In the same manner also Chrysostom reads [it], in the book On the Deity of Christ, against the Gentiles, writing thus: “These things no one says of a [mere] child-man; for no one of men was ever called God, Mighty — as neither Father of the world to come, nor Prince of this peace: for of his peace, he says, there is no end.”