this name, which had never been uttered among men, before Moses, he applies first to him alone who, by a type and sign, he knew would be his successor after his death, in the government of the nation. His successor, therefore, who had not assumed the appellation Jesus,[1] (Joshua,) before this period, being called by his other name Osliea, which his parents had given, was called by Moses Jesus, (Jehoshua, Joshua.) Num. xiii. 17. This name, as an honourable distinction, far superior to any royal diadem, was conferred on Joshua, because Joshua the son of Nun bore a resemblance to our Saviour, as the only one after Moses, and the completion of that symbolical worship given through him, that should succeed him in a government of pure and undefiled religion. Thus Moses attaches the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ, as the greatest honour to two men, who, according to him, excelled all the rest in virtue and glory ; the one to the high priest, the other to him that should have the government after him. But the prophets that lived subsequently to these times, also plainly announced Christ before by name; whilst at the same time they foretel the machinations of the Jews against him, and the calling of the Gentiles through him. Jeremiah bears testimony, speaking thus: "The breath[2] (the spirit,) before our face, Christ the Lord, was taken away in their destructions; of whom we said, under his shadow will we live among the nations." Lam. iv. 20. David also, fixed in astonishment, speaks of him as follows: " Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ." To which he afterwards adds, in the person of Christ himself: " The Lord said to me, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee ; ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." Ps. ii.
- ↑ Jesus. By some corruption of the name of Joshua, Eusebius calls him Auses. Jesus is the Greek form, for the more Hebrew Joshua. The Septuagint invariably use the former, and in one instance it is retained in our English version. Heb. iv. 8.
- ↑ This passage from Jeremiah is rendered as the above from the Septuagint, as quoted by Eusebius. In our English version, the force of the allusion is not perceptible, and one might look in vain for the passage as rendered here ; but the Hebrew fully admits the Greek version here given.
