Hector Pinto (Portuguese: Heitor Pinto) was a prominent Jesuit theologian of the 16th century. His commentary reflects the Counter-Reformation emphasis on Scripture, the authority of the Church Fathers (Jerome, Augustine), and polemics against Jewish interpretations of the Messiah. The translation was done by Qwen.
Hector Pinto, Commentary on Isaiah 42
Argument of Chapter 42
The prophet introduces God the Father speaking, and announcing His Son to men. He predicts the advent of Christ, the ruin and resurrection of many, and finally signifies the gentleness, meekness, and magnificence of Christ. He rebukes the failing of the Jews and foretells their blindness.
"Behold my servant..."
God had said in the previous chapter, near the end, that He would raise up a liberator who would overcome the princes of Babylon and restore the faithful to their homeland; by whom Cyrus is understood, as we explained there. But because divine seers, when they speak of some earthly liberator and savior, are accustomed to be elevated in spirit and direct the gaze of their mind to the divine liberator and savior, and to behold His high mysteries, they transfer the speech from the earthly to the heavenly, and prophesy concerning Christ our God, who came into the world that He might vindicate us from dark shadows into light and brightness, and lead us from Babylonian captivity, from the chains of sins, to the free and heavenly Jerusalem.
Isaiah does this now, who transfers the speech from Cyrus to Christ, concerning whom he prophesies openly in this chapter. That this chapter is to be understood of Christ, the divine Matthew testifies most clearly in the twelfth chapter of his Gospel (Matthew 12:17-21). But what wonder is it that Catholics interpret these things concerning Christ, when even many of the Jews remain in this opinion? But we differ in this: that they say Christ is yet to come, whereas we affirm He has come.
Is 42:1: "Behold my servant... I will uphold him... My chosen... in whom my soul is well pleased... I have put my Spirit upon him... He shall bring forth judgment to the nations."
"Behold my servant": Therefore, in this chapter God the Father speaks, saying thus: "Behold my servant, I will uphold him," etc. He calls Christ "servant" according to the human nature, on account of the ministry which He exhibited to us, sent by the Father but never separated from Him. For He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister (Matthew 20:28). And to use the words of Paul: "He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man" (Philippians 2:7).
He does not deny that Christ is man, concerning whom he had said in the Epistle to Timothy: "For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). And writing to the Corinthians: "The first man was of the earth, earthly; the second man, of heaven, heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:47). For this conclusion does not hold: "Christ was made in the likeness of men, therefore He is not man." Just as this does not hold: "The invincible John III was created in the likeness of the other Kings of Portugal, therefore he is not King." Indeed, concerning the king it is said: "He proceeds in the likeness of a king, or as a king."
And so is understood that which St. John says concerning Christ: "We saw his glory, the glory as it were of the Only Begotten of the Father" (John 1:14). Where he does not deny Him to be the Only Begotten, but says He has such glory as befits the Only Begotten. In the same way, the Apostle says Christ was made in the likeness of men, yet does not deny Him to be man. But because Christ is true God, and the divinity itself is united to humanity, therefore He is not called a pure man by the Apostle, but "made in the likeness of men." Where you see Christ called servant and true man. Nor is it wonderful, since He willed to be sold for us, that He might purchase us with His blood.
"I will uphold him": Moreover, that which Isaiah says here seems to allude to that which David had said, speaking with God the Father in the Psalm: "Blessed is the man whom you have chosen and taken up" (Psalm 64:5). The very same was testified by that voice of the Father which was heard at the Transfiguration, as St. Matthew says, stating: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 17:5), which the Apostle Peter relates in his second Epistle (2 Peter 1:17). And the same voice was heard also at the Baptism of Christ, as the same Evangelist relates (Matthew 3:17).
Therefore, the sense is: "Behold my servant, who is most dear to me."
"I have put my Spirit upon him": Isaiah had said the same above: "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him" (Isaiah 11:2). And below: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me" (Isaiah 61:1). Hence John the Baptist, in John the Evangelist, says: "I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven, and it remained upon him" (John 1:32). It is not to be understood that Christ then received the Holy Spirit for the first time; for He was full of Him from the instant of conception. But the Holy Spirit then declared His presence by an external sign, and remained in Christ as a testimony of His true divinity.
"He shall bring forth judgment to the nations": That is, the Gospel, which contains the judgment of God. For in many places of the Gospel, Christ judged that the good would attain glory, but the evil would suffer the penalties of their crimes. Or: He shall bring forth the final judgment. He will teach that He Himself is to come to judgment. What "judgment" signifies and how it is taken in divine letters, we have explained fully in the second chapter. You see here that the Messiah was to give the Gospel not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles. The Old Law was given to the Jews, but the New to Jews and Gentiles.
Is 42:2: "He shall not cry out... nor accept persons... nor shall his voice be heard outside."
"He shall not cry out": Namely, with a clamor of contention. He will not conduct matters with clamors, but will treat men with a certain admirable modesty and benignity. David wished to signify this in the Psalm with these words: "He shall come down like rain upon the fleece, and as showers dropping upon the earth" (Psalm 71:6).
"Nor shall he accept persons": That is, He will be upright and equal, and no respecter of persons (Romans 2:11). The Apostle says the same in the Epistle to the Romans, and it is written in many places of divine letters. A judge who wishes to imitate Christ ought not to be led by human and corrupt affection, if he wishes to rightly exercise justice, in which the splendor of virtue is greatest, and a certain community of life is contained. For just as a diameter divides a quadrangle from angle to angle through the middle, so that it leaves equal space on either side, so a judge ought to cultivate equality and flee acceptance of persons, lest he violate the right of human society and pervert justice. Let the judge beware lest he be a balance which inclines to that side from which it receives more weight, lest he unjustly favor him by whom he is affected with a greater gift.
"Nor shall his voice be heard outside": St. Matthew translates: "Nor shall any man hear his voice in the streets" (Matthew 12:19). This means He will be most peaceful and mild. He signified this a little before, saying: "He shall not cry out." And elsewhere: "He shall not open his mouth, as a sheep led to the slaughter shall be dumb, and as a lamb before his shearer shall be without voice" (Isaiah 53:7). Hence the Apostle said: "Let all clamor and anger and bitterness be taken away from you" (Ephesians 4:31).
Is 42:3: "A bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench..."
"A bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench": The sense is: When Christ comes, He will despise no one, however weak and fragile, but will strive to attract all to Himself. By the name of "bruised reed" and "smoking flax," He understands those weak in faith, in whom nevertheless something of good hope shines forth.
St. Jerome, in the Book of Questions to Algasia, by the "bruised reed" understands the Jewish people, who before sounded forth praises to God, but afterwards, broken on the corner stone, wounds the hands of him who wishes to lean upon it. By "smoking flax," he understands the people of the Gentiles, who, with the ardor of natural law extinguished, were enveloped in errors of most bitter smoke. Christ not only did not extinguish this and reduce it to ash, but rather blew upon it, and from a small spark raised a great fire of charity, and inflamed men with the admirable fire of love which He came to send upon the earth, and kindled them with the zeal of immortality.
"In truth he shall bring forth judgment": That is, He shall truly judge, fearing no one. He will announce the Gospel without fear.
Is 42:4: "He shall not be sad nor turbulent, until he establishes judgment in the earth..."
"He shall not be sad nor turbulent": This means: His meekness will endure until death; for then He will establish judgment in the earth, reconciling man to the Father, dying for our sins. Or: Until He announces the Gospel. As if to say: He will be meek and mild until death. For He announced the Gospel until death.
Behold, I pray, and contemplate with deep mind the modesty, gentleness, benignity, tolerance, and meekness of this Prelate. Let Christian princes and prelates learn from Him, and not wish to destroy subjects with excessive harshness. For just as those who wish to clean glass vessels contaminated with stains and bring them to brightness ought not to apply their hands harshly, lest while they wish to wipe away the filth they break and shatter the vessels, so prelates who wish to correct contaminated subjects ought to strive with all effort to effect this moderately, lest they bring destruction upon them while they strive to lead them to purity and beauty of soul.
And just as among surgeons, he is more praiseworthy who touches wounds more gently than he who lays hands on them harshly, so that prelate is to be considered more prudent who heals the wounds of the soul rather by gentleness and moderation than by excessive severity. And as the surgeon (to dwell on the same simile), when about to cut off corrupt and weakened members, is not filled with anger, but rather then shows greater tranquility, lest perturbation impede the art, so the prelate in rebukes and punishments ought to use great temperance, lest, disturbed by anger, he exceed the measure. For nothing is more excellent, nothing more worthy of a great and illustrious prelate, than placability and clemency.
And yet, meekness is to be approved in such a way that severity is also applied, without which the commonwealth cannot be rightly administered. But all animadversion and chastisement ought to be free from insult. God our Christ taught us this, who called "friend" him whom He rejected from the wedding because he did not have a wedding garment (Matthew 22:12). Isaiah shows His meekness in this chapter with many words.
"And the islands shall await his law": The Seventy (Septuagint) have: "And in his name the Gentiles shall hope." And St. Matthew also cites this place thus (Matthew 12:21). Where you see that by "islands" the Gentiles are understood, which we noted in the previous chapter. So is understood that which is written in the sixtieth chapter: "For me the islands wait" (Isaiah 60:9). Which Jacob much before had predicted with these words: "He shall be the expectation of the Gentiles" (Genesis 49:18).
Commentary on Isaiah 42:5-7
Is 42:5: "Thus says the Lord God... who gives breath to the people who are upon it, and spirit to those who tread upon it."
"Thus says the Lord God": At the beginning of the chapter, it was not explained who was speaking; now He says it is God who speaks concerning His Only Begotten Son.
"Giving breath to the people": That is, giving men the spirit of life. That which is immediately subjoined, "And spirit to those who tread upon it," is a repetition of the former. You may understand by "breath" life, but by "spirit" grace. Therefore He says God gives spirit to those treading upon the earth, that is, to those despising riches and delights and other such human things.
You see here that just men, grateful to God, trample upon the earth, but the unjust are trampled upon by their own feet. For where their treasure is, there is their soul (Matthew 6:21), since the soul is more where it loves than where it animates. But since the ambition of the avaricious, ambitious, and all unjust men has its treasure on earth, there is their soul. From which it is concluded that the soul of a wicked man is on the earth. Hence someone said: "My soul has cleaved to the pavement" (Psalm 118:25). But since a man is to be said to be where his soul is, it is clearly shown that a wicked man is on the earth and is trampled upon by his own feet. Hence God said: "Son of man, stand upon your feet" (Ezekiel 2:1). For the iniquitous man, seeking earthly things, does not stand upon his feet, but under his feet. But the pious and upright man tramples the earth, since he counts as small those things which seem excellent to the lovers of the world, and by that reason neglects them firmly and stably, and always aspires to heavenly things.
From which you may gather that the heart of a just man is a fire tending toward heaven, but of a terrestrial and unjust man is like the trunk of a tree fixed in the earth and placed within it. For just as the trunk of a tree has diverse roots, but all within the earth tending to diverse things, so the heart of a profane man has many cares and thoughts, but all looking toward the earth, seeking its pleasures, dignities, and riches. But these live without life; however, to those treading upon the earth, God gives spirit and grace.
Is 42:6: "I the Lord have called you in justice... and given you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles."
"I the Lord have called you in justice": That is, that you may teach justice, and through you men may be made just.
"And I have taken hold of your hand": Signifies the Father's love toward His Only Begotten Son. Or He says this because those things which the Son works, the Father works (John 14:10). This indeed is what Christ says at John: "The Father abiding in me, He himself does the works" (John 14:10).
"And I have given you for a covenant of the people": You see here Christ is our Covenant and our Light. Without Him we would not be reconciled to the Father, nor could we open the eyes of our mind. He is the mediator of God and men, and that light saying: "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12), concerning which Simeon had said: "A light to the revelation of the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32). We were children of wrath, and there was enmity between God and man, which man himself could not dissolve by himself. Our Covenant, the Son of God, came that He might be the author of our reconciliation. Hence Isaiah elsewhere calls Him the "Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). And Malachi says: "My covenant was with him of life and peace" (Malachi 2:5). And St. Paul: "He himself is our peace, who has made both one" (Ephesians 2:14). And elsewhere: "And you, when you were alienated and enemies in your mind in evil works, now however He has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death" (Colossians 1:21-22).
To this pertains that which St. John says in his Epistle: "He is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world" (1 John 2:2). The image of the Propitiatory bore the figure of this thing, which was a figure of Christ. For it was of purest gold over the Ark, and was covered by two seraphim looking mutually at each other. That Ark foreshadowed the Church; over it was the Propitiatory, signifying Christ, who is our propitiation, was to rule and protect His Church. The two seraphim were the two Testaments, which respond with highest and mutual harmony, teaching that Christ is the propitiator and reconciler.
"For a light of the Gentiles": This place teaches that the Messiah was to illuminate not only the Jews but also the Gentiles.
"That you may open the eyes of the blind": For before they did not see God, since not only were they surrounded by darkness, but they themselves were darkness. "You were once darkness," says St. Paul, "but now light in the Lord" (Ephesians 5:8). You see here sinners are blind, concerning whom Christ says: "They are blind, and leaders of the blind" (Matthew 15:14). The devil closes their eyes and covers them with darkness, lest they behold their own destruction. For just as a nocturnal thief, about to plunder a house, immediately extinguishes the lamp, and a wolf by night, or certainly in obscure time and air covered with mists and fog, rushes upon the flock, and a fisherman casts nets into involved and turbulent water, because then the fish do not see, so the devil surrounds the intellect of men with darkness, lest, considering their own destruction, they beware and decline the diabolical and pestilential snares.
David understood this, who said: "He has set me in dark places as those that are dead of the world" (Psalm 87:6). As if to say: The demon has enveloped my intellect with fog and placed me in darkness, where all flagitious men loving the world lie, whom I call the dead of the world. Woe to those who are not only blind but also blind others. Conversely, those are happy who are not only illuminated but illuminate others, imitating Christ, who said concerning Himself: "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). Concerning whom Zechariah said: "The Orient from on high has visited us, to illuminate them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to direct our feet into the way of peace" (Luke 1:78-79).
Is 42:7: "That you may bring out from confinement the bound..."
"That you may bring out from confinement the bound": This place teaches that sinners are bound with the chains of crimes, enclosed in prison, and covered with darkness. From which evils that supreme founder and preserver of the human race came to liberate us, that He might restore us to lost dignity, amplified with many ornaments. You see here it is the office of Christ to illuminate the blind, raise those lying in sins, and loose the bound and tied, and open the prison itself. For so the holy seer Zechariah addresses Him: "You also, by the blood of your testament, have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water" (Zechariah 9:11).
But the blind Jews understand all this concerning earthly liberation, hoping for a Messiah who would snatch them from captivity not of the mind but of the body. Nor do the wretched and blind men see that redemption through Christ is not earthly but spiritual. For the Prophet says: "He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities" (Psalm 129:8). Saying "from all his iniquities," he wished to show openly that Christ was to be the redeemer of souls. For iniquities of the mind are the chains by which sinners are held captive under the tyranny of the devil.
Jeremiah taught this, introducing the Messiah speaking thus: "I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33). And a little after: "I will be propitious to their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:34). Which place St. Paul interprets concerning Christ (Hebrews 10:17). And at Isaiah, Christ says: "I have blotted out as a cloud your iniquities, and as a mist your sins" (Isaiah 44:22). "Return to me, for I have redeemed you" (Isaiah 44:22).
See what kind of redemption the Prophet foretold Christ would be. And for that reason, this same prophet says the sword of this King and Redeemer is spiritual, namely the sacred Word of God, concerning which he says: "He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked" (Isaiah 11:4). And elsewhere: "He has made my mouth like a sharp sword" (Isaiah 49:2). I estimate this to be that concerning which David said: "Gird your sword upon your thigh, O most mighty" (Psalm 44:4). But evangelical doctrine is the sword by which the faithful are defended but the demons are fought. This is the sword concerning which John says in the Apocalypse: "Out of his mouth," namely Christ's, "proceeded a sharp two-edged sword" (Revelation 1:16). Concerning which Paul says: "Take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God" (Ephesians 6:17).
I wished to say these things that I might show the error of the Jews, expecting a Messiah who would redeem them from earthly captivity but caring minimally about the spiritual. Since their own scriptures testify that Christ is the redeemer of souls, not, as they expect, a warrior, not overflowing with riches, not ascending an adorned horse or triumphal chariot, not having armed satellites, but his apparatus is spiritual and befitting a heavenly king. For Zechariah says: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: Behold your King comes to you, just and a savior, he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass" (Zechariah 9:9).
Which place the Evangelists expound concerning Christ, and the text of Zechariah itself openly testifies (Matthew 21:5). Christ came not with human pomp and proud apparatus, but in humility and meekness, just as He said concerning Himself: "Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart" (Matthew 11:29). Do you not see, O Hebrew, that the Messiah was not to come to bestow human riches upon you? How could it be that divine patriarchs and holy seers, excelling in all wisdom and virtue, expected Him so ardently, who was to bring only human riches and dignities, which the same men contemned and counted for nothing? What riches was He to bring, whom Zechariah calls "poor" and Isaiah in chapter 52 "inglorious," unless heavenly and immortal?
Understanding this, David said: "The Lord shall redeem the souls of his servants" (Psalm 33:23). And Isaiah: "Israel is saved in the Lord with an eternal salvation" (Isaiah 45:17). They do not speak of external and temporal salvation, but internal and imperishable, and of the opening of the prison of sins, concerning which our seer says here: "That you may bring out from confinement the bound" (Isaiah 42:7).
CONTINUE
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