Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Transfiguration

But I was established as King by Him
Over His holy hill of Zion,
Declaring the Lord’s decree.
The Lord said to Me,
“You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You;
Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
You shall shepherd them with an iron staff;
You shall shatter them like a potter’s vessel.” (Ps 2:6–9)

As God, you see, He is maker of all things: “Through Him everything was made, and without Him nothing was made,” and “through Him all things were created, things visible and invisible.” If He is Lord and Creator of all things, He is Lord and Master of what He created; yet while Lord by nature insofar as He is God, as man He also receives the lordship of all things. Since in former times particular care seemed to be lavished only on the Jews—“The people of Jacob,” Scripture says, “became the Lord’s portion, Israel his allotted inheritance”—and yet were rejected for gaining no advantage from the special care, properly He transfers his care to the nations, without having been uncaring towards them in former times. Thus He fulfilled the oracle of Moses, whose words were, remember, “Rejoice, nations, with His people.”

Now, it is possible to discover an appropriate fulfillment for this prophecy, too: the number of the Jews who came to faith was not only the twelve apostles but was as well the seventy disciples, the hundred and twenty whom blessed Peter addressed in assembly, the five hundred to whom he appeared on one occasion after the Resurrection according to the statement of the divinely inspired Paul, the three thousand and the five thousand that the chief of the apostles made his catch through addressing them, and the many myriads of whom the mighty James exclaimed, “You see, brother, what countless numbers of Jewish believers there are.” These, to be sure, and in addition to them those of the Jews throughout the whole world who have come to faith He declares a holy people, and through them He takes possession of all the nations, thus fulfilling the prophecy in the words, “Rejoice, nations, with His people.”

In addition to this, however, He fulfills also His own prophecy which He made in regard to the Jews in the words, “Now, I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. Those, too, I must gather; they will hear My voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.” This, too, He says in the present psalm: Ask it of me, and I shall give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possession. But it occurs to me to lament the faithlessness of the Jews, who though hearing the prophecy that made specific mention of the ends of the earth, and realizing that none of their kings had had such sway, but only Christ the Lord, David’s offspring in the flesh, blind the eyes of their mind according to the prophecy that says, “They grope about, as blind people do for the wall, and not as they will do who have the benefit of eyesight.” That, of course, is the reason why the inspired word is directed against them.

Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms 2.8–10