means 'He shall be', and thus the passage asserts that the promised Messiah is 'the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity'. That this prophecy refers to Christ is evident from St. Matthew's Gospel, in which the first two verses of this chapter are quoted and explained as fulfilled when the Lord Jesus Christ 'came ¹ and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali.'

Before passing on to other prophets we must quote one other passage from Isaiah, the one in which it is written: 'The ² voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a high way for our God.' In all four Gospels this passage is referred to, and all four Evangelists ³ state that the 'voice' was the voice of John the Baptist, and that he was sent to prepare for the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, John being born about six months before Him and having begun to preach for some time before Christ revealed Himself as a teacher. Accordingly John the Baptist said: 'Repent ⁴ ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand . . . . I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.'

When the Jews asked him who he was and why he baptized, he replied : 'I ¹ am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet .... I baptize with water: in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not, even he that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose.' In order, however, to remove any uncertainty who the Lord was whose way he had to prepare and whose forerunner he was, John on the next day pointed out Jesus as the person whose appearance he had been sent ² to announce; for it is written: 'On ³ the morrow he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is become before me: for he was before me. And I knew him not; but that he should be made manifest to Israel, for this cause came I baptizing with water. And John bare witness, saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, he said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon him, the same is he that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. Again