The following words are, My hope from my mother’s breasts! On Thee was I cast from the womb, from my mother’s belly Thou art my God, for there is none that helpeth me. Many calves surrounded me, fat bulls compassed me about. They opened their mouths upon me, like a lion seizing (its prey) and roaring. All my bones were poured out like water, and were scattered. My heart became as it were melting wax in the midst of my belly. My might was dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue has cleaved to my throat. This was a prediction of what has taken place.
So with the phrase: my hope from my mother’s breasts. For directly He was born in Bethlehem, as I have already said, Herod the King learned from the Wise Men from Arabia all about Him, and plotted to slay Him; and Joseph, in accordance with the command of God, took Him and Mary, and went off to Egypt. For the Father had decided that He whom He had begotten should be put to death only after becoming a full-grown man and preaching the message received from Him.
But if any saith to us: Could not then God rather have killed Herod? I would forestall him and say: Aye, could not God in the beginning have removed even the serpent from existence, and not have said: And enmity will I set between it and the woman, and its seed and her seed?Genesis 3:15 And could He not have made a multitude of men in a moment?
But, as He knew was good, He made both angels and men possessed of freewill for the practice of righteousness, and He determined periods to last so long as He knew that it was good that they should have this freewill. And likewise because He knew that it was good, He wrought both universal and particular judgments, freewill however being kept intact. For this reason the Word says, at the foundation of the tower (of Babel), and at the confusion and change of tongues, the following words: And God said: Behold, all are one race, and have one tongue, and this have they begun to do. And now there will not fail them anything that they undertake to do.Genesis 11:6
And the saying: My strength was dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue hath cleaved to my throat, was likewise a prediction of what was to be done by Him in accordance with the will of the Father. For the power of His mighty word, whereby He always rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees, and in fact all the teachers in your race who disputed with Him, was held in check like a full, strong, fountain whose water was turned back, when He kept silence and was no longer willing to answer anyone anything in the presence of Pilate, as has been made plain in the Memoirs of His Apostles, in order that that which was spoken by Isaiah should bear fruit in action, where it is said: The Lord giveth me a tongue to know when I must say a word.
Further, His saying, My God art Thou; depart not from me, is that of one who taught that all must hope on God who made all things, and also seek salvation and help from Him alone, and not suppose, as most men, that they can be saved because of race or wealth or strength or wisdom. For this is the kind of thing that you always did, for you once made the calf, and always showed yourselves ungrateful, and slayers of the righteous, and puffed up with pride because of your race.
For if the Son of God plainly says that it is not because He is a son, nor because He is strong, nor because He is wise, that He can be saved, but that, in addition to being without sin (as Isaiah says that He has not sinned even in word, for no iniquity did He commit, nor guile with His mouth)Isaiah 53:9 He cannot be saved without God, how can you think that you or others who are looking forward to being saved without this hope, are not deceiving yourselves?