ORigen has written on Isaiah after his usual Method. We have but nine Homilies on this Prophet, which do not go beyond the sixth or seventh Chapters. These are what remain of the twenty five Homilies which Origen wrote upon this Prophet.
In the Works of St. Clement Alexandrinus, there are Collections taken from the Writings of the Prophets; wherein he does not confine himself to the Prophetical Writings, but quotes indifferently the Books both of the Old and New Testament, and explains them without following any Order. It is questioned whether this Piece is St. Clement’s of Alexdria; and the Conjecture of some is, that these may be Collections extracted from Tatian the old Valentinian Heretick. See the new Edition of St. Clement, by Potter.
St. Basil the Great, has written on the sixteen first Chapters of Isaiah. His Work is very useful and instructive; Doctrine and Morality are the Points which he keeps close to.
What we have remaining of St. Basil makes us regret the loss of what we have not; if it be true, that he wrote upon the whole Prophets. For, as Erasmus observes, it is the Work of a very eloquent Divine upon a very eloquent Prophet. Eloquentissimi Theologi opus in elegantissimum Prophetam, says he, in the nineteth Letter of his thirtieth Book.
Eusebius of Cæsarea has explained the whole Prophecy of Isaiah. His work has been lately published by F. Montfaucon in his Nova Collatio PP. & Scriptorum Græcorum, t. 2. p. 357. St. Jerom has made good use of these Comments in his upon Isaiah; and it has been our Observation, that commonly, when Eusebius says, he consulted his Hebrew Master upon any Passage, there too St. Jerom says, that he inquired of his Rabbi concerning the same Difficulty.
The principal Design of Eusebius of Cæsarea, in his Comment, is to oppose those who imputed every thing to Fate. He likewise treats in it concerning the Martyrs of his time, of the Piety of Princes; and abundance of very edifying Subjects.
St. Cyril of Alexandria has written upon the whole Prophecy of Isaiah in five Books, which make up the whole second Volume of his Works. He is diffuse, and does not keep much to the Letter.
St. Chrysostom has seven Homilies on the beginning of Isaiah. He goes not beyond the eighth Chapter. D. Bern. de Montfaucon has published them in the 16th Tome of his new Edition.
I say nothing of Apollinarius, Didymus, and Pierius, whose Works have not descended down to us; and were commended by St. Jerom, in whose Hands they were.
St. Jerom has composed eighteen Books upon all Isaiah. All the World knows, that among the Latins no one has succeeded better than St. Jerom in a literal Explanation of the Scripture; and that his Comments on the Prophets are the best of all his Works. His Prefaces particularly are excellent. He had before him the old Greek Commentators; Origen, Apollinarius, Didymus, Pierius, and Eusebius, who were of great service to him. He first explains the literal Sense, and then enlarges on the moral and allegorical. He has not only written upon Isaiah, but upon the four great, and twelve small Prophets: which is mentioned here to avoid repetition hereafter. We may add the same thing of Theodoret, and some other Fathers.
St. Austin, in his Confessions, l. 9. c. 5. says that St. Ambrose, soon after his Conversion, having recommended to him the reading of the Prophet Isaiah, he sat about it; but finding it too hard for him, he for that time was obliged to give it over, and put it off to some other opportunity.
Procopius of Gaza has written on Isaiah. His Comment is only an Abridgment of those written by the first Greek Fathers: It was published by John Curter, in Greek and Latin, at Paris, 1580, in fol. See above.
Abbot Joachim, of the Cistercian Order, Abbot and Founder of the Congregation de Flore, was in great reputation about the end of the 11th Century. He made a Comment on Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Revelations; and a Concord of the Old and New Testament. He is accused with indulging too much his own Visions and Imaginations; and many of his Errors have been condemned. His Comment was printed at Cologn, 1577, in 4to. the second Edition. He was of Calabria; and died in 1202.
The Comments on Isaiah, said to be St. Thomas Aquinas’s, as is prov’d by F. Echard, Bibl. Ord. Præd. tom. 1. p. 324, 325. and which really were this Doctor’s, were printed at Lyons, in 1531.
Among the Moderns we have Adam Sasbout; printed at Cologn, in 1608, in fol. Some pretend that Sasbout’s Comment is by John Hessels, or Hassels, his Master. It is the Work rather of a Divine, than of an able Critick. Yet if those Questions were retrenched which are of no use, we should find the Text to be explain’d in a manner sufficiently clear. It is short, judicious, and exact.
Leo de Castro, Canon of Valledolid in Spain, has written upon Isaiah and Hosea. He keeps almost thro’out to the spiritual Meaning, and generally applies all the Prophecies of Isaiah to Jesus Christ; neglecting the literal and historical Meaning of them. His Comment upon Isaiah came out at Salamanca, in 1570. It is extracted from the ancient Fathers. This Author was a Spaniard, a Salamanca Doctor, and died in 1586.
Cardinal Hugo, the Author printed under the Name of St. Thomas, and Lyranus, keep closer to the History.
Franciscus Forerius, or Foreiro, a Dominican, born at Lisbon in Portugal, who died in 1580. has composed a very large Comment on Isaiah, and the twelve small Prophets. His Work is literal, critical, and historical. He understood the Languages, and was a great Divine. It was printed at Venice, in 1563, in fol. and in the Great Criticks, tom. 4. together with a learned Preface, addressed to the Fathers of the Trentin Council, and another to his Friends; wherein he explains the Method observed by him in his Comment.
In Pez’s Anecdotes we find an Exposition de decem Oneribus, by Abbot Jerimbert, tom. 2. part 1. p. 428, 500.
Moreover the Comment of Hervæus, Monk of Dole, which contains eight Books, ibid. tom. 3. part 1. p. 1, 756.
Osorius the Elder has a Paraphrase in five Books, printed at Bologna, 1577, in 4to. and at Cologn, 1584, in 8vo. It is also in the Collection of his Works. Croveus calls it Opus insigne.
The Comment of Jerom ab Oleastro was printed at Paris, 1654, in fol. the second Edition. He was a Portugueze, a Dominican, and died in 1563, according to Nicholas Antonio; tho Tirinus makes him live till 1568.
Hector Pintus has also written upon the four great Prophets; printed with his other Works at Cologn, 1616. five Volumes in 4to. at Paris, three Volumes in fol. fol. 1617. and separately elsewhere. He was a Portugueze Hieronomite; and died in 1584. He understood Greek and Hebrew.
Gaspar Sanctius, Cornelius à Lapide, Lucas Brugensis, M. F. Thaddæus, of the Order of St. Augustin, are reputed to have written well upon Isaiah. Thaddæus’s true Name is Guidellus. He was General of his Order; and died in 1606. His Comment upon Isaiah was printed at Perouse, 1598, in two Volumes in 8vo.
Cosmas the Egyptian, of whom we have spoken upon Exodus, has explain’d Hezekiah’s Song, and treated of the Retrogradation of the Sun in his geographical System of the World, tom. 8. Vide ubi supra. We speak of him more largely in the Article of Sacred Geography.
It may be proper to know, that an illustrious and learned Lady, called Mary Magdalen Feuillet, put out a Concordance of the Prophecies with the Gospel, upon the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Saviour, at Paris, 1689, in 12mo. In this she solidly establishes the Principles of the Christian Religion, by shewing that the principal Mysteries foretold by the Saints of the Old Testament, were accomplished in the Person of the Son of God.