1:16 Wash you, be
clean;
Lest they think that he is prescribing
the washings of the law, he has to add:
remove your iniquities from
your souls before my eyes
I know your secret thoughts, and
none of your wicked desires escapes me, so purify your souls by the washing of regeneration.
cease from your iniquities
It is not enough to reject past
sins; your must also avoid repeating them in the future.
1:17 Learn to do well,
It is not enough to abstain from
evil to achieve perfection; you must also learn to do good works.
diligently seek judgment
deliver him that is suffering wrong, plead for the orphan, and obtain justice
for the widow. 1:18 And come, let us reason together, saith the
Lord.
Nevertheless, to prevent them
from being frightened by the reproaches they have just heard, he promises an
abundance of good things:
and through your sins be as purple,
I will make them white as snow, and though they be as scarlet, I will make them
white as wool.
He says, “When I bring you into
court, I shall not demand punishments for your outrages, but when I see your
repentance I shall do what the dyers do. By the
bath of most holy baptism, I shall change the color of blood and I
shall not allow you to carry the mark of the stain of murder forever. For my knowledge
is not like that of others. Where dyers color fabrics in pink, in yellow in
violet, or in purple, I shall turn red into snow white.” (Theodoret of Cyrrhus,
Commentary on Isaiah [trans. Gerald L. Bray; Ancient Christian Texts;
Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2026], 5-6, emphasis added)
The terms translated as “by the washing of regeneration” and
“by the bath of most holy baptism” translate the Greek τω λουτρω τοινυν της παλιγγενεσιας
and του παναγιου βαπτισματος λουτρω. See the following from Théodoret de. Cyr, Commentaire sur
Isaïe, ed. Jean-Noël Guinot, 3 vols. (Sources Chrétiennes 276; Cerf, 1980), 1:172:
