Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday in Advent

And a rod will emerge from the root of Jesse, and a flower will come up from the root. And God’s spirit will rest on him, a spirit of wisdom and intelligence, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and piety. He will fill him with a spirit of the fear of God; he will not judge according to reputation or reprove according to speech. Rather, he will render fair judgment to a low one, and he will reprove the low of the land; and he will strike the land with the word of his mouth, and with breath through his lips he will destroy ungodly things. And he will be girded at the waist with righteousness and enclosed with truth at his sides. And a wolf will feed together with a lamb, and a leopard will rest with a kid, and a little calf and a bull and a lion will feed together, and a small young child will lead them. And an ox and a bear will feed together, and they will be together with their young, and a lion will eat straw like an ox. And an infant child will lay its hand on an asp’s hole and on a bed of asps’ offspring. And they shall surely do no wrong, nor will they be able to destroy anyone on my holy mountain because the whole land was filled with knowing the Lord, as much water covers the seas. And in that day there will be the root of Jesse and the one who rises up to rule nations; nations will put their hope in him, and his rest will be honor. (Isaiah 11:1–10 LXX)

This is He who, after the manner of a dove, when our Lord was baptized, came and abode upon Him, dwelling in Christ full and entire, and not maimed in any measure or portion; but with His whole overflow copiously distributed and sent forth, so that from Him others might receive some enjoyment of His graces: the source of the entire Holy Spirit remaining in Christ, so that from Him might be drawn streams of gifts and works, while the Holy Spirit dwelt affluently in Christ. For truly Isaiah, prophesying this, said: “And the Spirit of wisdom and understanding shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and piety; and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him.” This self-same thing also he said in the person of the Lord Himself, in another place, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He has anointed me, He has sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor.”

Novation, On the Trinity 29

The one who would proceed “from the root of Jesse” was none other than Christ, and the children of the Jews themselves confess that this is so when they say that the prophecy discussed above is clearly about the expected and anointed one who would come among them. But now, even after a thousand years have passed from the time of the prophet Isaiah and the time of Christ to us, they maintain that the prophecy still has not happened. They are forever reflecting, but their theories have run aground, and they so extend the time-frame of the prophecy in order to discredit it as untrue. They rob themselves of the hope of the prophecies. Furthermore, they try to interpret the sense of the prophetic sayings, as the apostle says, “without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions.” But in order that we might attain what was discussed above, he then prophesied that the one who is raised from the root of Jesse shall rule the nations. And he adds: nations shall hope in him. He is certainly remembering the Jewish faction in what was discussed above, and he does not assume that anything prophesied would benefit the people of the circumcision.

Eusebius of Caesarea, Commentary on Isaiah 11