Isaiah 45:1

The divine Scripture designates under the name "anointed" not only those who are brought forward for unction but also those whom the God of the universe has singled out with a view toward [fulfilling] a required function. Thus, referring to the patriarchs who lived before …

What is most clear is the power of the prophecy or the prophetic preaching. We should look at each of the lines to see clearly what seems obscure. For it calls Cyrus "Christ" and not as if he were one of the saints, who could bear this name, but it functions to mean that he bears the name as anointed by God, in that God was in the habit of anointing those called to the kingdom even if they were not saints or worshipers. For we find the holy prophets saying to those who have received this, "The Lord has anointed you king over Israel." So Cyrus is the anointed one, anticipating Christ as king. Only through God has he triumphed and been brought to this triumphal song so as to reflect that since he is called "anointed," that is, by chrism and selection, he is called by God to the kingdom … so that you might know.… "I am the Lord God who calls your name, the God of Israel, for the sake of Jacob my servant/son and Jacob my chosen. I, God alone, have called you for this, and I have honored you with radiance, that you will be civil to my servant Israel. I have called you and have crowned you with glory, even though you do not know that I am the Lord and that there is no God other than me."

(Chapter 45, Verses 1-2) Thus says the Lord to Cyrus, his anointed one, whom he has taken by the right hand to subdue nations before him and strip the loins of kings, to force gateways before him that their gates be closed no more: I will go before you, and level the mountains; I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron. I know that in this chapter not only many Latin but also Greek people greatly err, thinking that it is written: Thus says the Lord to my Christ, the Lord; so that it is understood, according to what we read elsewhere: The Lord rains from the Lord (Gen. II). And: The Lord said to my Lord (Ps. CIX, 1). For it is not κυρίῳ, which means Lord, but it is said to Cyrus, who is called Chores in Hebrew, the king of the Persians, who overcame Babylon and the Chaldeans. And with the Medes joined together, the charioteer of the chariot, that is, of the camel and the donkey, is read above. This one is called Christ, that is, the anointed of the Lord, which was a sign among the Hebrews of royal power, just as with us the emperor is given a diadem and purple robe: so among the Hebrews those who were to reign were anointed with oil. Hence Saul is also called the anointed of the Lord (1 Samuel 24). And in the Psalms we read: 'Do not touch my anointed ones, and do no harm to my prophets' (Psalm 105:15). He grasped and held the right hand of this man, so that no one could resist his strength. Let us read the history of Cyrus the Great, consisting of eight books by Xenophon, and we will see the prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled. What city did not yield to him? What king did not submit to him? What walls, before impregnable, were not brought down by his siege?

For taking into his hands the book of Isaiah he found as he read the section which contained the prophecy concerning himself; since Isaiah says in that section: Thus saith the Lord to his Anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue …

"Thus says the Lord God to my Christ [the] Lord, whose right hand I have held, that the nations may hear him, 'the powers of kings will I burst asunder; I will open before him the gates, and the cities shall not be closed to him.' " This very thing we see now fulfilled. For whose right hand does God the Father hold but Christ's, his Son? All nations have heard of him, that is, people of all nations have believed. Their preachers, the apostles, are pointed to in the psalms of David: "Into the entire earth," he says, "is gone out their sound, and to the ends of the earth their words." For on whom else have nations the world over believed but on the Christ who has now already come?… In all these places the name of the Christ has already come to reign. He is the one before whom the gates of all cities have been opened and to whom none are closed, before whom iron bars have been crumbled and brazen gates opened. There is a spiritual sense affixed to these expressions. The hearts of individuals, having been blockaded in various ways by the devil, are now unbarred by the faith of Christ. This promise has already been evidently fulfilled, inasmuch as in all these places there are people who live believing in the name of Christ.