Saviours And The Saviour

Tu, inquit, Deus et nesciebamus, Deus Israel Salvator. Quamvis multis jam Scriptura et evidentibus signis, de quo loqueretur, ostenderet, expressit tamen manifestissime in Salvatoris nomine Christi nomen, quia idem Salvator utique qui Christus, dicente angelo: Quia natus est vobis hodie Salvator, qui est Christus Dominus. Jesum enim Hebraice Salvatorem interpretari nemini dubium est, sicut angelis sanctae Mariae virgini protestatur, dicens: Et vocabis nomen ejus Jesum: ipse enim salvum faciet populum suum a peccatis eorum. Ac ne forte eum hoc modo Salvatorem diceres praedictum quo de aliis dictum est: Et suscitavit eis Dominus salvatorem Othoniel filium Chenez. Et iterum: Suscitavit eis Dominus salvatorem Aod filium Gera; adjecit: Ipse enim salvum faciet populum suum a peccatis eorum. Non est autem humanae opis redimere populum a captivitate peccati, quod illi soli utique possibile est de quo dictum est: Ecce agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit peccata mundi. Caeteri enim non suum populum, sed Dei; et non a peccatis, sed ab hostibus salvaverunt. Sanctus Ioannes Cassianus, De Incarnatione Christi, Contra Nestorium Haereticum, Liber IV, Cap XII Source: Migne PL 50.91a-94a

He says, 'You are God, and we did not know, O God of Israel the Saviour.' 1 Although Scripture has already shown by many clear signs who here is spoken of, yet it has most manifestly pointed to the name of Christ with the name of Saviour, because certainly the Saviour is the same as Christ, as the angel says: 'For to you is born this day a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.' 2 Indeed that in Hebrew 'Jesus' means 'Saviour,' is something everybody knows, just as the angel announced it to the holy Virgin Mary, saying: 'And you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.' 3 And lest perhaps you say that He is termed Saviour in the same way as others have been so called, 'And the Lord raised up a saviour for them, Othniel the Son of Kenaz,' and again, 'the Lord raised up a saviour for them, Ehud the son of Gera,' 4 he added: 'For He shall save His people from their sins.' But it is not in the power of a man to redeem the people from the captivity of sin, that is something that is possible only for Him of whom it is said, 'Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world.' 5 For the others saved a people who were not their own but God's, and they did not save them from their sins but from their enemies. Saint John Cassian, On the Incarnation Of Christ, Against Nestorius, Book 4, Chap 12 1 Isaiah 45.15-17 2 Lk 2.11 3 Mt 1.21 4 Judges 3.9, 3.15 5 Jn 1.29