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TRANSLATED BY THE REV. S. THELWALL.
IT happened very recently a dispute was held between a Christian
and a Jewish proselyte. Alternately with contentious cable they each
spun out the day until evening. By the opposing din, moreover, of some
partisans of the individuals, truth began to be overcast by a sort of
cloud. It was therefore our pleasure that that which, owing to the
confused noise of disputation, could be less fully elucidated point by
point, should be more carefully looked into, and that the pen should
determine, for reading purposes, the questions handled
For the occasion, indeed, of claiming Divine grace even for the
Gentiles derived a pre-eminent fitness from this fact, that the man who
set up to vindicate CoWs Law as his own was of the Gentiles, and not a
Jew "of the stock of the Israelites."(2) For this fact—that Gentiles
are admissible to God's Law—is enough to prevent Israel from priding
himself on the notion that "the Gentiles are accounted as a little drop
of a bucket," or else as "dust out of a threshing-floor:"(3) although
we have God Himself as an adequate engager and faithful promiser, in
that He promised to Abraham that "in his seed should be blest all
nations of the earth;"(4) and that(5) out of the womb of Rebecca "two
peoples and two nations were about to proceed,"(6)—of course those of
the Jews, that is, of Israel; and of the Gentiles, that is ours. Each,
then, was called a people and a nation; lest, from the nuncupative
appellation, any should dare to claim for himself the privilege of
grace. For God ordained "two peoples and two nations" as about to
proceed out of the womb of one woman: nor did grace(6) make distinction
in the nuncupative appellation, but in the order of birth; to the
effect that, which ever was to be prior in proceeding from the womb,
should be subjected to "the less," that is, the posterior. For thus
unto Rebecca did God speak: "Two nations are in thy womb, and two
peoples shall be divided from thy bowels; and people shall overcome
people, and the greater shall serve the less."(7) Accordingly, since
the people or nation of the Jews is anterior in time, and "greater"
through the grace of primary favour in the Law, whereas ours is
understood to be "less" in the age of times, as having in the last era
of the world(8) attained the knowledge of divine mercy: beyond doubt,
through the edict of the divine utterance, the prior and "greater"
people—that is, the Jewish—must necessarily serve the "less;" and the
"less" people—that is, the Christian—overcome the "greater." For,
withal, according to the memorial records of the divine Scriptures, the
people of the Jews—that is, the more ancient—quite forsook God, and
did degrading service to idols, and, abandoning the Divinity, was
surrendered to images; while "the people" said to Aaron, "Make us gods
to go before us."(9) And when the gold out of the necklaces of the
women and the rings of 152
the men had been wholly smelted by fire, and there had come forth a calf-like head, to this figment Israel with one consent (abandoning God) gave honour, saying, "These are the gods who brought us from the land of Egypt."(1) For thus, in the later times in which kings were governing them, did they again, in conjunction with Jeroboam, worship golden kine, and groves, and enslave themselves to Baal.(2) Whence is proved that they have ever been depicted, out of the volume of the divine Scriptures, as guilty of the crime of idolatry; whereas our "less"—that is, posterior—people, quitting the idols which formerly it used slavishly to serve, has been converted to the same God from whom Israel, as we have above related, had departed.(3) For thus has the "less"—that is, posterior—people overcome the"greater people," while it attains the grace of divine favour, from which Israel has been divorced.
Stand we, therefore, foot to foot, and determine we the sum and
substance of the actual question within definite lists.
For why should God, the founder of the universe, the Governor of
the whole world,(4) the Fashioner of humanity,the Sower(5) of universal
nations be believed to have given a law through Moses to one people,
and not be said to have assigned it to all nations? For unless He had
given it to all by no means would He have habitually permitted even
proselytes out of the nations to have access to it. But—as is
congruous with the goodness of God, and with His equity, as the
Fashioner of mankind—He gave to all nations the selfsame law, which at
definite and stated times He enjoined should be observed, when He
willed, and through whom He willed, and as He willed. For in the
beginning of the world He gave to Adam himself and Eve a law, that they
were not to eat of the fruit of the tree planted in the midst of
paradise; but that, if they did contrariwise, by death they were to
die.(6) Which law had continued enough for them, had it been kept. For
in this law given to Adam we recognise in embryo(7) all the precepts
which afterwards sprouted forth when given through Moses; that is, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God from thy whole heart and out of thy whole
soul; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;(8) Thou shalt not kill;
Thou shall not commit adultery; Thou shalt not steal; False witness
thou shall not utter; Honour thy father and mother; and, That which is
another's, shall thou not covet. For the primordial law was given to
Adam and Eve in paradise, as the womb of all the precepts of God. In
short, if they had loved the Lord their God, they would not have
contravened His precept; if they had habitually loved their
neighbour—that is, themselves(9)—they would not have believed the
persuasion of the serpent, and thus would not have committed murder
upon themselves,(9) by falling(10) from immortality, by contravening
God's precept; from theft also they would have abstained, if they had
not stealthily tasted of the fruit of the tree, nor had been anxious to
skulk beneath a tree to escape the view of the Lord their God; nor
would they have been made partners with the falsehood-asseverating
devil, by believing him that they would be "like God;" and thus they
would not have offended God either, as their Father, who had fashioned
them from clay of the earth, as out of the womb of a mother; if they
had not coveted another's, they would not have tasted of the unlawful
fruit. Therefore, in this general and primordial law of God, the
observance of which, in the case of the tree's fruit, He had
sanctioned, we recognise enclosed all the precepts specially of the
posterior Law, which germinated when disclosed at their proper times.
For the subsequent superinduction of a law is the work of the same
Being who had before premised a precept; since it is His province
withal subsequently to train, who had before resolved to form,
righteous creatures. For what wonder if He extends a discipline who
institutes it? if He advances who begins? In short, before the Law of
Moses,(11) written in stone-tables, I contend that there was a law
unwritten, which was habitually understood naturally, and by the
fathers was habitually kept. For whence was Noah "found
righteous,"(12)if in his case the righteousness of a natural law had
not preceded? Whence was Abraham accounted "a friend of God,"(13) if
not on the ground of equity and righteousness, (in the observance) of a
natural law? Whence was Melchizedek named "priest of the most high
God,"(14) if, before the priesthood of the Levitical law, there were
not levites who were wont to offer sacrifices to God? For thus, after
the above-mentioned patriarchs, was the Law given to Moses, at that
(well-known) time after their exode from Egypt, after the interval and
spaces of four hundred years. In fact, it was after Abraham's "four
hundred and thirty years"(1) that the Law was given. Whence we
understand that God's law was anterior even to Moses, and was not first
(given) in Horeb, nor in Sinai and in the desert, but was more ancient;
(existing) first in paradise, subsequently reformed for the patriarchs,
and so again for the Jews, at definite periods: so that we are not to
give heed to Moses' Law as to the primitive law, but as to a
subsequent, which at a definite period God has set forth to the
Gentiles too and, after repeatedly promising so to do through the
prophets, has reformed for the better; and has premonished that it
should come to pass that, just as "the law was given through Moses"(2)
at a definite time, so it should be believed to have been temporarily
observed and kept. And let us not annul this power which God has, which
reforms the law's precepts answerably to the circumstances of the
times, with a view to man's salvation. In fine, let him who contends
that the Sabbath is still to be observed as a balm of salvation, and
circumcision on the eighth day because of the threat of death, teach us
that, for the time past, righteous men kept the Sabbath, or practised
circumcision, and were thus rendered "friends of God." For if
circumcision purges a man since God made Adam uncircumcised, why did He
not circumcise him, even after his sinning, if circumcision purges? At
all events, in settling him in paradise, He appointed one uncircumcised
as colonist of paradise. Therefore, since God originated Adam
uncircumcised, and inobservant of the Sabbath, consequently his
offspring also, Abel, offering Him sacrifices, uncircumcised and
inobservant of the Sabbath, was by Him commended; while He accepted(3)
what he was offering in simplicity of heart, and reprobated the
sacrifice of his brother Cain, who was not rightly dividing what he was
offering.(4) Noah also, uncircumcised—yes, and inobservant of the
Sabbath—God freed from the deluge.(5) For Enoch, too, most righteous
man, uncircumcised and in-observant of the Sabbath, He translated from
this world;(6) who did not first taste(7) death, in order that, being a
candidate for eternal life,(8) he might by this time show us that we
also may, without the burden of the law of Moses, please God.
Melchizedek also, "the priest of the most high God," uncircumcised and
inobservant of the Sabbath, was chosen to the priesthood of God.(9)
Lot, withal, the brother(10) of Abraham, proves that it was for the
merits of righteousness, without observance of the law, that he was
freed from the conflagration of the Sodomites.(11)
But Abraham, (you say,) was circumcised. Yes, but he pleased God
before his circumcision;(12) nor yet did he observe the Sabbath. For he
had "accepted"(13) circumcision; but such as was to be for "a sign" of
that time, not for a prerogative title to salvation. In fact,
subsequent patriarchs were uncircumcised, like Melchizedek, who,
uncircumcised, offered to Abraham himself, already circumcised, on his
return from battle, bread and wine.(14) "But again," (you say) "the son
of Moses would upon one occasion have been choked by an angel, if
Zipporah,(15) had not circumcised the foreskin of the infant with a
pebble; whence, "there is the greatest peril if any fail to circumcise
the foreskin of his flesh." Nay, but if circumcision altogether brought
salvation, even Moses himself, in the case of his own son, would not
have omitted to circumcise him on the eighth day; whereas it is agreed
that Zipporah did it on the journey, at the compulsion of the angel.
Consider we, accordingly, that one single infant's compulsory
circumcision cannot have prescribed to every people, and rounded, as it
were, a law for keeping this precept. For God, foreseeing that He was
about to give this circumcision to the people of Israel for "a sign,"
not for salvation, urges the circumcision of the son of Moses, their
future leader, for this reason; that, since He had begun, through him,
to give the People the precept of cir- cumcision, the people should not
despise it, from seeing this example (of neglect) already exhibited
conspicuously in their leader's son. For circumcision had to be given;
but as "a sign," whence Israel in the last time would have to be
distinguished, when, in accordance with their deserts, they should be
prohibited from entering the holy city, as we see through the words of
the prophets, saying, "Your land is desert; your cities utterly burnt
with fire; your country, in your sight, strangers shall eat up; and,
deserted and subverted by strange peoples, the daughter of Zion shall
be derelict, like a shed in a vineyard, and like a watchhouse in a
cucumber-field, and as it were a city which is being stormed."(1) Why
so? Because the subsequent discourse of the prophet reproaches them,
saying, "Sons have I begotten and upraised, but they have reprobated
me;"(2) and again, "And if ye shall have outstretched hands, I will
avert my face from you; and if ye shall have multiplied prayers, I will
not hear you: for your hands are full of blood;"(3) and again, "Woe!
sinful nation; a people full of sins; wicked sons; ye have quite
forsaken God, and have provoked unto indignation the Holy One of
Israel."(4) This, therefore, was God's foresight,—that of giving
circumcision to Israel, for a sign whence they might be distinguished
when the time should arrive wherein their above-mentioned deserts
should prohibit their admission into Jerusalem: which circumstance,
because it was to be, used to be announced; and, because we see it
accomplished, is recognised by us. For, as the carnal circumcision,
which was temporary, was inwrought for "a sign" in a contumacious
people, so the spiritual has been given for salvation to an obedient
people; while the prophet Jeremiah says, "Make a renewal for you, and
sow not in thorns; be circumcised to God, and circumcise the foreskin
of your heart:"(5) and in another place he says, "Behold, days shall
come, saith the Lord, and I will draw up, for the house of Judah and
for the house of Jacob,(6) a new testament; not such as I once gave
their fathers in the day wherein I led them out from the land of
Egypt."(7) Whence we understand that the coming cessation of the former
circumcision l then given, and the coming procession of a new law (not
such as He had already given to the fathers), are announced: just as
Isaiah foretold, saying that in the last days the mount of the Lord and
the house of God were to be manifest above the tops of the mounts: "And
it shall be exalted," he says, "above the hills; and there shall come
over it all nations; and many shall walk, and say, Come, ascend we unto
the mount of the Lord, and unto the house of the God of Jacob,"(8)—not
of Esau, the former son, but of Jacob, the second; that is, of our
"people," whose "mount" is Christ, "praecised without concisors'
hands,(9) filling every land," shown in the book of Daniel.(10) In
short, the coming procession of a new law out of this "house of the God
of Jacob" Isaiah in the ensuing words announces, saying, "For from Zion
shall go out a law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem, and
shall judge among the nations,"—that is, among us, who have been
called out of the nations,—"and they shall join to beat their glaives
into ploughs, and their lances into sickles; and nations shall not take
up glaive against nation, and they shall no more learn to fight."(11)
Who else, therefore, are understood but we, who, fully taught by the
new law, observe these practices,—the old law being obliterated, the
coming of whose abolition the action itself(12) demonstrates? For the
wont of the old law was to avenge itself by the vengeance of the
glaive, and to pluck out "eye for eye," and to inflict retaliatory
revenge for injury.(13) But the new law's wont was to point to
clemency, and to convert to tranquillity the pristine ferocity of
"glaives" and "lances," and to remodel the pristine execution of "war"
upon the rivals and foes of the law into the pacific actions of
"ploughing" and "tilling" the land.(14) Therefore as we have shown
above that the coming cessation of the old law and of the carnal
circumcision was declared, so, too, the observance of the new law and
the spiritual circumcision has shone out into the voluntary
obediences(15) of peace. For "a people," he says, "whom I knew not hath
served me; in obedience of the ear it hath obeyed me."(16) Prophets
made the announcement. But what is the "people" which was ignorant of
God, but ours, who in days bygone knew not God? and who, in the hearing
of the ear, gave heed to Him, but we, who, forsaking idols, have been
converted to God? For Israel—who had been known to God, and who had by
Him been "upraised"(1) in Egypt, and was transported through the Red
Sea, and who in the desert, fed forty years with manna, was wrought to
the semblance of eternity, and not contaminated with human passions,(2)
or fed on this world's(3) meats, but fed on "angel's loaves"(4)—the
manna—and sufficiently bound to God by His benefits—forgat his Lord
and God, saying to Aaron: "Make us gods, to go before us: for that
Moses, who ejected us from the land of Egypt, hath quite forsaken us;
and what hath befallen him we know not." And accordingly we, who "were
not the people of God" in days bygone, have been made His people,(5) by
accepting the new law above mentioned, and the new circumcision before
foretold.
It follows, accordingly, that, in so far as the abolition of
carnal circumcision and of the old law is demonstrated as having been
consummated at its specific times, so also the observance of the
Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary.
For the Jews say, that from the beginning God sanctified the
seventh day, by resting on it from all His works which He made; and
that thence it was, likewise, that Moses said to the People: "REMEMBER
the day of the sabbaths, to sanctify it: every servile work ye shall
not do therein, except what pertaineth unto life."(6) Whence we
(Christians) understand that we still more ought to observe a sabbath
from all "servile work"(7) always, and not only every seventh day, but
through all time. And through this arises the question for us, what
sabbath God willed us to keep? For the Scriptures point to a sabbath
eternal and a sabbath temporal. For Isaiah the prophet says, "Your
sabbaths my soul hateth;"(8) and in another place he says, "My sabbaths
ye have profaned."(9) Whence we discern that the temporal sabbath is
human, and the eternal sabbath is accounted divine; concerning which He
predicts through Isaiah: "And there shall be," He says, "month after
month, and day after day, and sabbath after sabbath; and all flesh
shall come to adore in Jerusalem, saith the Lord;"(10) which we
understand to have been fulfilled in the times of Christ, when "all
flesh"—that is, every nation—"came to adore in Jerusalem" God the
Father, through Jesus Christ His Son, as was predicted through the
prophet: "Behold, proselytes through me shall go unto Thee."(11) Thus,
therefore, before this temporal sabbath, there was withal an eternal
sabbath foreshown and foretold; just as before the carnal circumcision
there was withal a spiritual circumcision foreshown. In short, let them
teach us, as we have already premised, that Adam observed the sabbath;
or that Abel, when offering to God a holy victim, pleased Him by a
religious reverence for the sabbath; or that Enoch, when translated,
had been a keeper of the sabbath; or that Noah the ark-builder
observed, on account of the deluge, an immense sabbath; or that
Abraham, in observance of the sabbath, offered Isaac his son; or that
Melchizedek in his priesthood received the law of the sabbath.
But the Jews are sure to say, that ever since this precept was
given through Moses, the observance has been binding. Manifest
accordingly it is, that the precept was not eternal nor spiritual, but
temporary,(12) which would one day cease. In short, so true is it that
it is not in the exemption from work of the sabbath—that is, of the
seventh day—that the celebration of this solemnity is to consist, that
Joshua the son of Nun, at the time that he was reducing the city
Jericho by war. stated that he had received from God a precept to order
the People that priests should carry the ark of the testament of God
seven days, making the circuit of the city; and thus, when the seventh
day's circuit had been performed, the walls of the city would
spontaneously fall.(13) Which was so done; and when the space of the
seventh day was finished, just as was predicted, down fell the walls of
the city. Whence it is manifestly shown, that in the number of the
seven days there intervened a sabbath-day. For seven days, whencesoever
they may have commenced, must necessarily include within them a
sabbath-day; on which day not only must the priests have worked, but
the city must have been made a prey by the edge of the sword by all the
people of Israel. Nor is it doubtful that they "wrought servile work,"
when, in obedience to God's precept, they drave the preys of war. For
in the times of the Maccabees, too, they did bravely in fighting on the
sabbaths, and routed their foreign foes, and recalled the law of their
fathers to the primitive style of life by fighting on the sabbaths.(1)
Nor should I think it was any other law which they thus vindicated,
than the one in which they remembered the existence of the prescript
touching "the day of the sabbaths."(2)
Whence it is manifest that the force of such precepts was
temporary, and respected the necessity of present circumstances; and
that it was not with a view to its observance in perpetuity that God
formerly gave them such a law.
So, again, we show that sacrifices of earthly oblations and of
spiritual sacrifices(3) were predicted; and, moreover, that from the
beginning the earthly were foreshown, in the person of Cain, to be
those of the "elder son," that is, of Israel; and the opposite
sacrifices demonstrated to be those of the "younger son," Abel, that
is, of our people. For the elder, Cain, offered gifts to God from the
fruit of the earth; but the younger son, Abel, from the fruit of his
ewes. "God had respect unto Abel, and unto his gifts; but unto Cain and
unto his gifts He had not respect. And God said unto Cain, Why is thy
countenance fallen? hast thou not—if thou offerest indeed aright, but
dost not divide aright—sinned? Hold thy peace. For unto thee shall thy
conversion be and he shall lord it over thee. And then Cain said unto
Abel his brother, Let us go into the field: and he went away with him
thither, and he slew him. And then God said unto Cain, Where is Abel
thy brother? And he said, I know not: am I my brother's keeper? To whom
God said, The voice of the blood of thy brother crieth forth unto me
from the earth. Wherefore cursed is the earth, which hath opened her
mouth to receive the blood of thy brother. Groaning and trembling shalt
thou be upon the earth, and every one who shall have found thee shall
slay thee."(4) From this proceeding we gather that the twofold
sacrifices of "the peoples" were even from the very beginning
foreshown. In short, when the sacerdotal law was being drawn up,
through Moses, in Leviticus, we find it prescribed to the people of
Israel that sacrifices should in no other place be offered to God than
in the land of promise; which the Lord God was about to give to "the
people" Israel and to their brethren, in order that, on Israel's
introduction thither, there should there be celebrated sacrifices and
holocausts, as well for sins as for souls; and nowhere else but in the
holy land.(5) Why, accordingly, does the Spirit afterwards predict,
through the prophets, that it should come to pass that in every place
and in every land there should be offered sacrifices to God? as He says
through the angel Malachi, one of the twelve prophets: "I will not
receive sacrifice from your hands; for from the rising sun unto the
setting my Name hath been made famous among all the nations, saith the
Lord Almighty: and in every place they offer clean sacrifices to my
Name."(6) Again, in the Pslams, David says: "Bring to God, ye countries
of the nations"—undoubtedly because "unto every land" the preaching of
the apostles had to "go out"(7)—"bring to God fame and honour; bring
to God the sacrifices of His name: take up(8) victims and enter into
His courts."(9) For that it is not by earthly sacrifices, but by
spiritual, that offering is to be made to God, we thus read, as it is
written, An heart contribulate and humbled is a victim for God;"(10)
and elsewhere, "Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise, and render to
the Highest thy vows."(11) Thus, accordingly, the spiritual "sacrifices
of praise" are pointed to, and "an heart contribulate" is demonstrated
an acceptable sacrifice to God. And thus, as carnal sacrifices are
understood to be reprobated—of which Isaiah withal speaks, saying, "To
what end is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? saith the
Lord"(12)—so spiritual sacrifices are predicted(13) as accepted, as
the prophets announce. For, "even if ye shall have brought me," He
says, "the finest wheat flour, it is a vain supplicatory gift: a thing
execrable to me;" and again He says, "Your holocausts and sacrifices,
and the fat of goats, and blood of bulls, I will not, not even if ye
come to be seen by me: for who hath required these things from your
hands?"(14) for "from the rising sun unto the setting, my Name hath
been made famous among all the nations, saith the Lord."(1) But of the
spiritual sacrifices He adds, saying, "And in every place they offer
dean sacrifices to my Name, saith the Lord."(1)
Therefore, since it is manifest that a sabbath temporal was
shown, and a sabbath eternal foretold; a circumcision carnal foretold,
and a circumcision spiritual pre-indicated; a law temporal and a law
eternal formally declared; sacrifices carnal and sacrifices spiritual
foreshown; it follows that, after all these precepts had been given
carnally, in time preceding, to the people Israel, there was to
supervene a time whereat the precepts of the ancient Law and of the old
ceremonies would cease, and the promise(2) of the new law, and the
recognition of spiritual sacrifices, and the promise of the New
Testament, supervene;(3) while the light from on high would beam upon
us who were sitting in darkness, and were being detained in the shadow
of death.(4) And so there is incumbent on us a necessity s binding us,
since we have premised that a new law was predicted by the prophets,
and that not such as had been already given to their fathers at the
time when He led them forth from the land of Egypt,(6) to show and
prove, on the one hand, that that old Law has ceased, and on the other,
that the promised new law is now in operation.
And, indeed, first we must inquire whether there be expected a
giver of the new law, and an heir of the new testament, and a priest of
the new sacrifices, and a purger of the new circumcision, and an
observer of the eternal sabbath, to suppress the old law, and institute
the new testament, and offer the new sacrifices, and repress the
ancient ceremonies, and suppress(7) the old circumcision together with
its own sabbath,(8) and announce the new kingdom which is not
corruptible. Inquire, I say, we must, whether this giver of the new
law, observer of the spiritual sabbath, priest of the eternal
sacrifices, eternal ruler of the eternal kingdom, be come or no: that,
if he is already come, service may have to be rendered him; if he is
not yet come, he may have to be awaited, until by his advent it be
manifest that the old Law's precepts are suppressed, and that the
beginnings of the new law ought to arise. And, primarily, we must lay
it down that the ancient Law and the prophets could not have ceased,
unless He were come who was constantly announced, through the same Law
and through the same prophets, as to come.
Therefore upon this issue plant we foot to foot, whether the
Christ who was constantly announced as to come be already come, or
whether His coming be yet a subject of hope. For proof of which
question itself, the times likewise must be examined by us when the
prophets announced that the Christ would come; that, if we succeed in
recognising that He has come within the limits of those times, we may
without doubt believe Him to be the very one whose future coming was
ever the theme of prophetic song, upon whom we—the nations, to
wit—were ever announced as destined to believe; and that, when it
shall have been agreed that He is come, we may undoubtedly likewise
believe that the new law has by Him been given, and not disavow the new
testament in Him and through Him drawn up for us. For that Christ was
to come we know that even the Jews do not attempt to disprove, inasmuch
as it is to His advent that they are directing their hope. Nor need we
inquire at more length concerning that matter, since in days bygone all
the prophets have prophesied of it; as Isaiah: "Thus saith the Lord God
to my Christ (the) Lord,(9) whose right hand I have holden, that the
nations may hear Him: the powers of kings will I burst asunder; I will
open before Him the gates, and the cities shall not be closed to Him."
Which very thing we see fulfilled. For whose right hand does God the
Father hold but Christ's, His Son?—whom all nations have heard, that
is, whom all nations have believed,—whose preachers, withal, the
apostles, are pointed to in the Psalms of David: "Into the universal
earth," says he, "is gone out their sound, and unto the ends of the
earth their words."(10) For upon whom else have the universal nations
believed, but upon the Christ who is already come? For whom have the
nations believed,—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and they who inhabit
Mesopotamia, Armenia, Phrygia, Cappadocia, and they who dwell in
Pontus, and Asia, and Pamphylia, tarriers in Egypt, and inhabiters of
the region of Africa which is beyond Cyrene, Romans and sojourners,
yes, and in Jerusalem Jews,(1) and all other nations; as, for instance,
by this time, the varied races of the Gaetulians, and manifold confines
of the Moors, all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of
the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons—inaccessible to the Romans,
but subjugated to Christ, and of the Sarmatians, and Dacians, and
Germans, and Scythians, and of many remote nations, and of provinces
and islands many, to us unknown, and which we can scarce enumerate? In
all which places the name of the Christ who is already come reigns, as
of Him before whom the gates of all cities have been opened, and to
whom none are closed, before whom iron bars have been crumbled, and
brazen gates(2) opened. Although there be withal a spiritual sense to
be affixed to these expressions,—that the hearts of individuals,
blockaded in various ways by the devil, are unbarred by the faith of
Christ,—still they have been evidently fulfilled, inasmuch as in all
these places dwells the "people" of the Name of Christ. For who could
have reigned over all nations but Christ, God's Son, who was ever
announced as destined to reign over all to eternity? For if Solomon
"reigned," why, it was within the confines of Judea merely: "from
Beersheba unto Dan" the boundaries of his kingdom are marked.(3) If,
moreover, Darius "reigned" over the Babylonians and Parthians, he had
not power over all nations; if Pharaoh, or whoever succeeded him in his
hereditary kingdom, over the Egyptians, in that country merely did he
possess his kingdom's dominion; if Nebuchadnezzar with his petty kings,
"from India unto Ethiopia" he had his kingdom's boundaries;(5) if
Alexander the Macedonian he did not hold more than universal Asia, and
other regions, after he had quite conquered them; if the Germans, to
this day they are not suffered to cross their own limits; the Britons
are shut within the circuit of their own ocean; the nations of the
Moors, and the barbarism of the Gaetulians, are blockaded by the
Romans, lest they exceed the confines of their own regions. What shall
I say of the Romans themselves,(5) who fortify their own empire with
garrisons of their own legions, nor can extend the might of their
kingdom beyond these nations? But Christ's Name is extending
everywhere, believed everywhere, worshipped by all the above-enumerated
nations, reigning everywhere, adored everywhere, conferred equally
everywhere upon all. No king, with Him, finds greater favour, no
barbarian lesser joy; no dignities or pedigrees enjoy distinctions of
merit; to all He is equal, to all King, to all Judge, to all "God and
Lord."(6) Nor would you hesitate to believe what we asseverate, since
you see it taking place.
Accordingly the times must be inquired into of the predicted and
future nativity of the Christ, and of His passion, and of the
extermination of the city of Jerusalem, that is, its devastation. For
Daniel says, that "both the holy city and the holy place are
exterminated together with the coming Leader, and that the pinnacle is
destroyed unto ruin."(7) And so the times of the coming Christ, the
Leader,(8) must be inquired into, which we shall trace in Daniel; and,
after computing them, shall prove Him to be come, even on the ground of
the times prescribed, and of competent signs and operations of His.
Which matters we prove, again, on the ground of the consequences which
were ever announced as to follow His advent; in order that we may
believe all to have been as well fulfilled as foreseen.
In such wise, therefore, did Daniel predict concerning Him, as to
show both when and in what time He was to set the nations free; and
how, after the passion of the Christ, that city had to be exterminated.
For he says thus: "In the first year under Darius, son of Ahasuerus, of
the seed of the Medes, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldees, I
Daniel understood in the books the number of the years. ... And while I
was yet speaking in my prayer, behold, the man Gabriel, whom I saw in
the vision in the beginning, flying; and he touched me, as it were, at
the hour of the evening sacrifice, and made me understand, and spake
with me, and said, Daniel I am now come out to imbue thee with
understanding; in the beginning of thy supplication went out a word.
And I am come to announce to thee, because thou art a man of
desires;(1) and ponder thou on the word, and understand in the vision.
Seventy hebdomads have been abridged(2) upon thy commonalty, and upon
the holy city, until delinquency be made inveterate, and sins sealed,
and righteousness obtained by entreaty, and righteousness eternal
introduced; and in order that vision and prophet may be sealed, and an
holy one of holy ones anointed. And thou shalt know, and thoroughly
see, and understand, from the going forth of a word for restoring and
rebuilding Jerusalem unto the Christ, the Leader, hebdomads (seven and
an half, and(3)) lxii and an half: and it shall convert, and shall be
built into height and entrenchment, and the times shall be renewed: and
after these lxii hebdomads shall the anointing be exterminated, and
shall not be; and the city and the holy place shall he exterminate
together with the Leader, who is making His advent; and they shall be
cut short as in a deluge, until (the) end of a war, which shall be cut
short unto ruin. And he shall confirm a testament in many. In one
hebdomad and the half of the hebdomad shall be taken away my sacrifice
and libation, and in the holy place the execration of devastation,
(and(4)) until the end of (the) time consummation shall be given with
regard to this devastation."(5)
Observe we, therefore, the limit,—how, in truth, he predicts
that there are to be lxx hebdomads, within which if they receive Him,
"it shall be built into height and entrenchment, and the times shall be
renewed." But God, foreseeing what was to be—that they will not merely
not receive Him, but will both persecute and deliver Him to death—both
recapitulated, and said, that in lx and ii and an half of an hebdomad
He is born, and an holy one of holy ones is anointed; but that when vii
hebdomads(6) and an half were fulfilling, He had to suffer, and the
holy city had to be exterminated after one and an half
hebdomad—whereby namely, the seven and an half hebdomads have been
completed. For he says thus: "And the city and the holy place to be
exterminated together with the leader who is to come; and they shall be
cut short as in a deluge; and he shall destroy the pinnacle unto
ruin."(7) Whence, therefore, do we showy that the Christ came within
the lxii and an half hebdomads? We shall count, moreover, from the
first year of Darius, as at this particular time is shown to Daniel
this particular vision; for he says, "And understand and conjecture
that at the completion of thy word(8) I make thee these answers."
Whence we are bound to compute from the first year of Darius, when
Daniel saw this vision.
Let us see, therefore, how the years are filled up until the
advent of the Christ:—
For Darius reigned . . xviiii(9) years (19).
Artaxerxes reigned . . xl and i years (41). Then King Ochus (who
is also called Cyrus) reigned . xxiiii years (24). Argus ....one
year. Another Darius, who is also named Melas, ...xxi years (21).
Alexander the Macedonian, .xii years (12).
Then, after Alexander,who had reigned over both Medes and
Persians, whom he had reconquered, and had established his kingdom
firmly in Alexandria, when withal he called that (city) by his own
name; (10) after him reigned, (there, in Alexandria,) Soter,. . . .
.xxxv years (35). To whom succeeds
Philadelphus, reigning xxx and viii years (38). To him succeeds
Euergetes, .xxv years (25). Then
Philopator . . .xvii years (17) After him
Epiphanes, . . xxiiii years (24). Then another
Euergetes, . . .xxviiii years (29). Then another
Soter, . . . .xxxviii years (38).
Ptolemy . . . .xxxvii years (37).
Cleopatra, . . .xx years v months (20 5-12). Yet again
Cleopatra reigned joint- ly with Augustus . xiii years (13.)
After Cleopatra, Augus- tus reigned other . xliii years (43). For
all the years of the empire of Augustus were lvi years (56).
Let us see, moreover, how in the forty-first year of the empire
of Augustus, when he has been reigning for xx and viii years after the
death of Cleopatra, the Christ is born. (And the same Augustus
survived, after Christ is born, xv years; and the remaining times of
years to the day of the birth of Christ will bring us to the xl first
year, which is the xx and viiith of Augustus after the death of
Cleopatra.) There are, (then,) made up cccxxx and vii years, v months:
(whence are filled up lxii hebdomads and an half: which make up
ccccxxxvii years, vi months:) on the day of the birth of Christ. And
(then) "righteousness eternal" was manifested, and "an Holy One of holy
ones was anointed"—that is, Christ—and "sealed was vision and
prophet," and "sins" were remitted, which, through faith in the name of
Christ, are washed away(1) for all who believe on Him. But what does he
mean by saying that "vision and prophecy are sealed?" That all prophets
ever announced of Him that He was to come and had to suffer. Therefore,
since the prophecy was fulfilled through His advent, for that reason he
said that "vision and prophecy were sealed;" inasmuch as He is the
signet of all prophets, fulfilling all things which in days bygone they
had announced of Him.(2) For after the advent of Christ and His passion
there is no longer "vision or prophet" to announce Him as to come. In
short, if this is not so, let the Jews exhibit, subsequently to Christ,
any volumes of prophets, visible miracles wrought by any angels,(such
as those) which in bygone days the patriarchs saw until the advent of
Christ, who is now come; since which event "sealed is vision and
prophecy," that is, confirmed. And justly does the evangelist(3) write,
"The law and the prophets (were) until John" the Baptist. For, on
Christ's being baptized, that is, on His sanctifying the waters in His
own baptism,(4) all the plenitude of bygone spiritual grace-gifts
ceased in Christ, sealing as He did all vision and prophecies, which by
His advent He fulfilled. Whence most firmly does he assert that His
advent "seals visions and prophecy."
Accordingly, showing, (as we have done,) both the number of the
years, and the time of the lx two and an half fulfilled hebdomads, on
completion of which, (we have shown) that Christ is come, that is, has
been born, let us see what (mean) other "vii and an half hebdomads,"
which have been subdivided in the abscision of(5) the former hebdomads;
(let us see, namely,) in what event they have been fulfilled:—
For, after Augustus who survived after the birth of
Christ, are made up . xv years (15). To whom succeeded Tibe-
rius Caesar, and held the
empire . . xx years, vii months, xxviii
days (20 etc.). (In the fiftieth year of his
empire Christ suffered.
being about xxx years of
age when he suffered.) Again Caius Caesar, also called
Caligula, . . iii years, viii months, xiii
days (3 etc.). Nero Caesar, . . xi years,
ix months, xiii
days (11 etc.). Galba . . . . vii
months,vi days. (7 etc.). Otho . . . . iii days. Vitellius, . . .
viii mos., xxvii days (8 mos.) Vespasian, in the first year of his
empire, subdues the Jews in war; and there are made lii years, vi
months. For he reigned xi years. And thus, in the day of their
storming, the Jews fulfilled the lxx hebdomads predicted in Daniel.
Therefore, when these times also were completed, and the Jews
subdued, there afterwards ceased in that place "libations and
sacrifices," which thenceforward have not been able to be in that place
celebrated; for "the unction," too,(6) was "exterminated" in that place
after the passion of Christ. For it had been predicted that the unction
should be exterminated in that place; as in the Psalms it is
prophesied, "They exterminated my hands and feet."(7) And the suffering
of this "extermination" was perfected within the times of the lxx
hebdomads, under Tiberius Caesar, in the consulate of Rubellius Geminus
and Fufius Geminus, in the month of March, at the times of the
passover, on the eighth day before the calends of April,(8) on the
first day of unleavened bread, on which they slew the lamb at even,
just as had been enjoined by Moses.(9) Accordingly, all the synagogue
of Israel did slay Him, saying to Pilate, when he was desirous to
dismiss Him, "His blood be upon us, and upon our children;"(10) and,
"If thou dismiss him, thou art not a friend of Caesar;"(11) in order
that all things might be fulfilled which had been written of Him.(12)
Begin we, therefore, to prove that the BIRTH of Christ was
announced by prophets; as Isaiah (e.g.,) foretells, "Hear ye, house of
David; no petty contest have ye with men, since God is proposing a
struggle. Therefore God Himself will give you a sign; Behold, the
virgin(1) shall conceive, and bear a son, and ye shall call his name
Emmanuel"(2) (which is, interpreted, "God with us"(3)): "butter and
honey shall he eat;"(4): "since, ere the child learn to call father or
mother, he shall receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of
Samaria, in opposition to the king of the Assyrians."(5)
Accordingly the Jews say: Let us challenge that prediction of
Isaiah, and let us institute a comparison whether, in the case of the
Christ who is already come, there be applicable to Him, firstly, the
name which Isaiah foretold, and (secondly) the signs of it(6) which he
announced of Him.
Well, then, Isaiah foretells that it behoves Him to be called
Emmanuel; and that subsequently He is to take the power of Damascus and
the spoils of Samaria, in opposition to the king of the Assyrians.
"Now," say they, "that (Christ) of yours, who is come, neither was
called by that name, nor engaged in warfare." But we, on the contrary,
have thought they ought to be admonished to recall to mind the context
of this passage as well. For subjoined is withal the interpretation of
Emmanuel—"God with us"(7)—in order that you may regard not the sound
only of the name, but the sense too. For the Hebrew sound, which is
Emmanuel, has an interpretation, which is, God with us. Inquire, then,
whether this speech, "God with us" (which is Emmanuel), be commonly
applied to Christ ever since Christ's light has dawned, and I think you
will not deny it. For they who out of Judaism believe in Christ, ever
since their believing on Him, do, whenever they shall wish to say(8)
Emmanuel, signify that God is with us: and thus it is agreed that He
who was ever predicted as Emmanuel is already come, because that which
Emmanuel signifies is come—that is, "God with us." Equally are they
led by the sound of the name when they so understand "the power of
Damascus," and "the spoils of Samaria," and "the kingdom of the
Assyrians," as if they portended Christ as a warrior; not observing
that Scripture premises, "since, ere the child learn to call father or
mother, he shall receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of
Samaria, in opposition to the king of the Assyrians." For the first
step is to look at the demonstration of His age, to see whether the age
there indicated can possibly exhibit the Christ as already a man, not
to say a general. Forsooth, by His babyish cry the infant would summon
men to arms, and would give the signal of war not with clarion, but
with rattle, and point out the foe, not from His charger's back or from
a rampart, but from the back or neck of His suckler and nurse, and thus
subdue Damascus and Samaria in place of the breast. (It is another
matter if, among you, infants rush out into battle,—oiled first, I
suppose, to dry in the sun, and then armed with satchels and rationed
on butter,—who are to know how to lance sooner than how to lacerate
the bosom!)(9) Certainly, if nature nowhere allows this,—(namely,) to
serve as a soldier before developing into manhood, to take "the power
of Damascus" before knowing your father,—it follows that the
pronouncement is visibly figurative. "But again," say they, "nature
suffers not a 'virgin' to be a parent; and yet the prophet must be
believed." And deservedly so; for he bespoke credit for a thing
incredible, by saying that it was to be a sign. "Therefore," he says,
"shall A SIGN be given you. Behold, a virgin shall conceive in womb,
and bear a son." But a sign from God, unless it had consisted in some
portentous novelty, would not have appeared a sign. In a word, if, when
you are anxious to cast any down from (a belief in) this divine
prediction, or to convert whoever are simple, you have the audacity to
lie, as if the Scripture contained (the announcement), that not "a
virgin," but "a young female," was to conceive and bring forth; you are
refuted even by this fact, that a daily occurrence—the pregnancy and
parturition of a young female, namely—cannot possibly seem anything of
a sign. And the setting before us, then, of a virgin-mother is
deservedly believed to be a sign; but not equally so a warrior-infant.
For there would not in this case again be involved the question of a
sign; but, the sign of a novel birth having been awarded, the next step
after the sign is, that there is enunciated a different ensuing
ordering(10) of the infant, who is to eat "honey and butter." Nor is
this, of course, for a sign. It is natural to infancy. But that he is
to receives(1) "the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria in
opposition to the king of the Assyrians," this is a wondrous sign. Keep
to the limit of (the infant's) age, and inquire into the sense of the
prediction; nay, rather, repay to truth what you are unwilling to
credit her with, and the prophecy becomes intelligible by the relation
of its fulfilment. Let those Eastern magi be believed, dowering with
gold and incense the infancy of Christ as a king;(2) and the infant has
received "the power of Damascus" without battle and arms. For, besides
the fact that it is known to all that the "power"—for that is the
"strength"—of the East is wont to abound in gold and odours, certain
it is that the divine Scriptures regard "gold" as constituting the
"power" also of all other nations; as it says(3) through Zechariah:
"And Judah keepeth guard at Jerusalem, and shall amass all the vigour
of the surrounding peoples, gold and silver."(4) For of this gift of
"gold" David likewise says, "And to Him shall be given of the gold of
Arabia;"(5) and again, "The kings of the Arabs and Saba shall bring Him
gifts."(6) For the East, on the one hand, generally held the magi (to
be) kings; and Damascus, on the other hand, used formerly to be
reckoned to Arabia before it was transferred into Syrophoenicia on the
division of the Syrias: the "power" whereof Christ then "received" in
receiving its ensigns,—gold, to wit, and odours. "The spoils,"
moreover, "of Samaria" (He received in receiving) the magi themselves,
who, on recognising Him, and honouring Him with gifts, and adoring Him
on bonded knee as Lord and King, on the evidence of the guiding and
indicating star, became "the spoils of Samaria," that is, of
idolatry—by believing, namely, on Christ. For (Scripture) denoted
idolatry by the name of "Samaria," Samaria being ignominious on the
score of idolatry; for she had at that time revolted from God under
King Jeroboam. For this, again, is no novelty to the Divine Scriptures,
figuratively to use a transference of name grounded on parallelism of
crimes. For it(7) calls your rulers "rulers of Sodore," and your people
the "people of Gomorrha,"(8) when those dries had already long been
extinct.(9) And elsewhere it says, through a prophet, to the people of
Israel, "Thy father (was) an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite;"(10)
of whose race they were not begotten, but (were called their sons) by
reason of their consimilarity in impiety, whom of old (God) had called
His own sons through Isaiah the prophet: "I have generated and exalted
sons."(11) So, too, Egypt is sometimes understood to mean the whole
world(12) in that prophet, on the count of superstition and
malediction.(13) So, again, Babylon, in our own John, is a figure of
the city Rome, as being equally great and proud of her sway, and
triumphant over the saints.(14) On this wise, accordingly,
(Scripture)(15) entitled the magi also with the appellation of
"Samaritans,"—"despoiled"(of that) which they had had in common with
the Samaritans, as we have said—idolatry in opposition to the Lord.
(It(16) adds), "in opposition," moreover, "to the king of the
Assyrians,"—in opposition to the devil, who to this hour thinks
himself to be reigning, if he detrudes the saints from the religion of
God.
Moreover, this our interpretation will be supported while (we
find that) elsewhere as well the Scriptures designate Christ a warrior,
as we gather from the names of certain weapons, and words of that kind.
But by a comparison of the remaining senses the Jews shall be
convicted. "Gird thee," says David, "the sword upon the thigh."(17) But
what do you read above concerning the Christ? "Blooming in beauty above
the sons of men; grace is outpoured in thy lips."(18) But very absurd
it is if he was complimenting on the bloom of his beauty and the grace
of his lips, one whom he was girding for war with a sword; of whom he
proceeds subjunctively to say, "Outstretch and prosper, advance and
reign!" And he has added, "because of thy lenity and justice."(19) Who
will ply the sword without practising the contraries to lenity and
justice; that is, guile, and asperity, and injustice, proper (of
course) to the business of battles? See we, then, whether that which
has another action be not another sword,—that is, the Divine word of
God, doubly sharpened(20) with the two Testaments of the ancient law
and the new law; sharpened by the equity of its own wisdom; rendering
to each one according to his own action.(21) Law- ful, then, it was for
the Christ of God to be precinct, in the Psalms, without warlike
achievements, with the figurative sword of the word of God; to which
sword is congruous the predicated "bloom," together with the "grace of
the lips;" with which sword He was then "girt upon the thigh," in the
eye of David, when He was announced as about to come to earth in
obedience to God the Father's decree. "The greatness of thy right hand,
he says, "shall conduct thee"(1)—the virtue to wit, of the spiritual
grace from which the recognition of Christ is deduced. "Thine arrows,"
he says, "are sharp,"(2)—God's everywhere-flying precepts (arrows)
threatening the exposure(3) of every heart, and carrying compunction
and transfixion to each conscience: "peoples shall fall beneath
thee,"(4)—of course, in adoration. Thus mighty in war and
weapon-bearing is Christ; thus will He "receive the spoils," not of
"Samaria" alone, but of all nations as well. Acknowledge that His
"spoils" are figurative whose weapons you have learnt to be
allegorical. And thus, so far, the Christ who is come was not a
warrior, because He was not predicted as such by Isaiah.
"But if the Christ," say they, "who is believed to be coming is
not called Jesus, why is he who is come called Jesus Christ?" Well,
each name will meet in the Christ of God, in whom is found likewise the
appellation(5) Jesus. Learn the habitual character of your error. In
the course of the appointing of a successor to Moses, Oshea(6) the son
of Nun(7) is certainly transferred from his pristine name, and begins
to be called Jesus.(8) Certainly, you say. This we first assert to have
been a figure of the future. For, because Jesus Christ was to introduce
the second people (which is composed of us nations, lingering deserted
in the world(9) aforetime) into the land of promise, "flowing with milk
and honey"(10) (that is, into the possession of eternal life, than
which nought is sweeter); and this had to come about, not through Moses
(that is, not through the Law's discipline), but through Joshua (that
is, through the new law's grace), after our circumcision with "a knife
of rock"(11) (that is, with Christ's precepts, for Christ is in many
ways and figures predicted as a rock(12)); therefore the man who was
being prepared to act as images of this sacrament was inaugurated under
the figure of the Lord's name, even so as to be named Jesus.(13) For He
who ever spake to Moses was the Son of God Himself; who, too, was
always seen.(14) For God the Father none ever saw, and lived.(15) And
accordingly it is agreed that the Son of God Himself spake to Moses,
and said to the people, "Behold, I send mine angel before thy"—that
is, the people's—"face, to guard thee on the march, and to introduce
thee into the land which I have prepared thee: attend to him, and be
not disobedient to him; for he hath not escaped(16) thy notice, since
my name is upon him."(17) For Joshua was to introduce the people into
the land of promise, not Moses. Now He called him an "angel," on
account of the magnitude of the mighty deeds which he was to achieve
(which mighty deeds Joshua the son of Nun did, and you yourselves
read), and on account of his office of prophet announcing (to wit) the
divine will; just as withal the Spirit, speaking in the person of the
Father, calls the forerunner of Christ, John, a future "angel," through
the prophet: "Behold, I send mine angel before Thy"—that is,
Christ's—"face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee."(18) Nor is it
a novel practice to the Holy Spirit to call those "angels" whom God has
appointed as ministers of His power. For the same John is called not
merely an "angel" of Christ, but withal a "lamp" shining before Christ:
for David predicts, "I have prepared the lamp for my Christ;"(19) and
him Christ Himself, coming "to fulfil the prophets,"(20) called so to
the Jews. "He was," He says, "the burning and shining lamp;"(21) as
being he who not merely "prepared His ways in the desert,"(22) but
withal, by pointing out "the Lamb of God,"(23) illumined the minds of
men by his heralding, so that they understood Him to be that Lamb whom
Moses was wont to announce as destined to suffer. Thus, too, (was the
son of Nun called) JOSHUA, on account of the future mystery(1) of his
name: for that name (He who spake with Moses) confirmed as His own
which Himself had conferred on him, because He had bidden him
thenceforth be called, not "angel" nor "Oshea," but "Joshua." Thus,
therefore, each name is appropriate to the Christ of God—that He
should be called Jesus as well (as Christ).
And that the virgin of whom it behoved Christ to be born (as we
have above mentioned) must derive her lineage of the seed of David, the
prophet in subsequent passages evidently asserts. "And there shall be
born," he says, "a rod from the root of Jesse"—which rod is Mary—"and
a flower shall ascend from his root: and there shall rest upon him the
Spirit of God, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
discernment and piety, the spirit of counsel and truth; the spirit of
God's fear shall fill Him."(2) For to none of men was the universal
aggregation of spiritual credentials appropriate, except to Christ;
paralleled as He is to a "flower" by reason of glory, by reason of
grace; but accounted "of the root of Jesse," whence His origin is to be
deduced,—to wit, through Mary.(3) For He was from the native soil of
Bethlehem, and from the house of David; as, among the Romans, Mary is
described in the census, of whom is born Christ.(4)
I demand, again—granting that He who was ever predicted by
prophets as destined to come out of Jesse's race, was withal to exhibit
all humility, patience, and tranquillity—whether He be come? Equally
so (in this case as in the former), the man who is shown to bear that
character will be the very Christ who is come. For of Him the prophet
says, "A man set in a plague, and knowing how to bear infirmity;" who
"was led as a sheep for a victim; and, as a lamb before him who
sheareth him, opened not His mouth."(5) If He "neither did contend nor
shout, nor was His voice heard abroad," who "crushed not the bruised
reed"—Israel's faith, who "quenched not the burning flax"(6)—that is,
the momentary glow of the Gentiles—but made it shine more by the
rising of His own light,—He can be none other than He who was
predicted. The action, therefore, of the Christ who is come must be
examined by being placed side by side with the rule of the Scriptures.
For, if I mistake not, we find Him distinguished by a twofold
operation,—that of preaching and that of power. Now, let each count be
disposed of summarily. Accordingly, let us work out the order we have
set down, teaching that Christ was announced as a preacher; as, through
Isaiah: "Cry out," he says, "in vigour, and spare not; lift up, as with
a trumpet, thy voice, and announce to my commonalty their crimes, and
to the house of Jacob their sins. Me from day to day they seek, and to
learn my ways they covet, as a people which hath done righteousness,
and hath not forsaken the judgment of God," and so forth:(7) that,
moreover, He was to do acts of power from the Father: "Behold, our God
will deal retributive judgment; Himself will come and save us: then
shall the infirm be healed, and the eyes of the blind shall see, and
the ears of the deaf shall hear, and the mutes' tongues shall be
loosed, and the lame shall leap as an hart,"(8) and so on; which works
not even you deny that Christ did, inasmuch as you were wont to say
that, "on account of the works ye stoned Him not, but because He did
them on the Sabbaths."(9)
Concerning the last step, plainly, of His passion you raise a
doubt; affirming that the passion of the cross was not predicted with
reference to Christ, and urging, besides, that it is not credible that
God should have exposed His own Son to that kind of death; because
Himself said, "Cursed is every one who shall have hung on a tree."(10)
But the reason of the case antecedently explains the sense of this
malediction; for He says in Deuteronomy: "If, moreover, (a man) shall
have been (involved) in some sin incurring the judgment of death, and
shall die, and ye shall suspend him on a tree, his body shall not
remain on the tree, but with burial ye shall bury him on the very day;
because cursed by God is every one who shall have been suspended on a
tree; and ye shall not defile the land which the Lord thy God shall
give thee for (thy) lot."(11) Therefore He did not maledictively
adjudge Christ to this passion, but drew a distinction, that whoever,
in any sin, had incurred the judgment of death, and died suspended on a
tree, he should be "cursed by God," because his own sins were the cause
of his suspension on the tree. On the other hand, Christ, who spoke not
guile from His mouth,(1) and who exhibited all righteousness and
humility, not only(as we have above recorded it predicted of Him) was
not exposed to that kind of death for his own deserts, but (was so
exposed) in order that what was predicted by the prophets as destined
to come upon Him through your means(2) might be fulfilled; just as, in
the Psalms, the Spirit Himself of Christ was already singing, saying,
"They were repaying me evil for good;"(3) and, "What I had not seized I
was then paying in full;(4)" They exterminated my hands and feet;"(5)
and, "They put into my drink gall, and in my thirst they slaked me with
vinegar;"(6) "Upon my vesture they did cast (the) lot;"(7) just as the
other (outrages) which you were to commit on Him were foretold,—all
which He, actually and thoroughly suffering, suffered not for any evil
action of His own, but "that the Scriptures from the mouth of the
prophets might be fulfilled."(8)
And, of course, it had been meet that the mystery(9) of the
passion itself should be figuratively set forth in predictions; and the
more incredible (that mystery), the more likely to be "a
stumbling-stone,"(10) if it had been nakedly predicted; and the more
magnificent, the more to be adumbrated, that the difficulty of its
intelligence might seek (help from) the grace of God.
Accordingly, to begin with, Isaac, when led by his father as a
victim, and himself bearing his own "wood,"(11) was even at that early
period pointing to Christ's death; conceded, as He was, as a victim by
the Father; carrying, as He did, the "wood" of His own passion.(12)
Joseph, again, himself was made a figure of Christ(13) in this
point alone (to name no more, not to delay my own course), that he
suffered persecution at the hands of his brethren, and was sold into
Egypt, on account of the favour of God;(14) just as Christ was sold by
Israel—(and therefore,) "according to the flesh," by His
"brethren"(15)—when He is betrayed by Judas.(16) For Joseph is withal
blest by his father(17) after this form: "His glory(is that) of a bull;
his horns, the horns of an unicorn; on them shall he toss nations alike
unto the very extremity of the earth." Of course no one-horned
rhinoceros was there pointed to, nor any two-horned minotaur. But
Christ was therein signified: "bull," by reason of each of His two
characters,—to some fierce, as Judge; to others gentle, as Saviour;
whose "horns" were to be the extremities of the cross. For even in a
ship's yard—which is part of a cross—this is the name by which the
extremities are called; while the central pole of the mast is a
"unicorn." By this power, in fact, of the cross, and in this manner
horned, He does now, on the one hand, "toss" universal nations through
faith, wafting them away from earth to heaven; and will one day, on the
other, "toss" them through judgment, casting them down from heaven to
earth.
He, again, will be the" bull" elsewhere too in the same
scripture.(18) When Jacob pronounced a blessing on Simeon and Levi, he
prophesies of the scribes and Pharisees; for from them(19) is derived
their(20) origin. For (his blessing) interprets spiritually thus:
"Simeon and Levi perfected iniquity out of their sect,"(21) —whereby,
to wit, they persecuted Christ: "into their counsel come not my soul!
and upon their station rest not my heart! because in their indignation
they slew men"—that is, prophets—"and in their concupiscence they
hamstrung a bull!"(22)—that is, Christ, whom—after the slaughter of
prophets—they slew, and exhausted their savagery by transfixing His
sinews with nails. Else it is idle if, after the murder already
committed by them, he upbraids others, and not them, with butchery.(23)
But, to come now to Moses, why, I wonder, did he merely at the
time when Joshua was battling against Amalek, pray sitting with hands
expanded, when, in circumstances so critical, he ought rather, surely,
to have com- mended his prayer by knees bended, and hands beating his
breast, and a face prostrate on the ground; except it was that there,
where the name of the Lord Jesus was the theme of speech—destined as
He was to enter the lists one day singly against the devil—the figure
of the cross was also necessary, (that figure) through which Jesus was
to win the victory?(1) Why, again, did the same Moses, after the
prohibition of any "likeness of anything,"(2) set forth a brazen
serpent, placed on a "tree," in a hanging posture, for a spectacle of
healing to Israel, at the time when, after their idolatry,(3) they were
suffering extermination by serpents, except that in this case he was
exhibiting the Lord's cross on which the "serpent" the devil was "made
a show of,"(4) and, for every one hurt by such snakes—that is, his
angels(5)—on turning intently from the peccancy of sins to the
sacraments of Christ's cross, salvation was outwrought? For he who then
gazed upon that(cross) was freed from the bite of the serpents.(6)
Come, now, if you have read in the utterance of the prophet in
the Psalms, "God hath reigned from the tree,"(7) I wait to hear what
you understand thereby; for fear you may perhaps think some
carpenter-king(8) is signified, and not Christ, who has reigned from
that time onward when he overcame the death which ensued from His
passion of "the tree."
Similarly, again, Isaiah says: "For a child is born to us, and to
us is given a son."(9) What novelty is that, unless he is speaking of
the "Son" of God?—and one is born to us the beginning of whose
government has been made "on His shoulder." What king in the world
wears the ensign of his power on his shoulder, and does not bear either
diadem on his head, or else sceptre in his hand, or else some mark of
distinctive vesture? But the novel "King of ages," Christ Jesus, alone
reared "on His shoulder" His own novel glory, and power, and
sublimity,—the cross, to wit; that, according to the former prophecy,
the Lord thenceforth "might reign from the tree." For of this tree
likewise it is that God hints, through Jeremiah, that you would say,
"Come, let us put wood(10) into his bread, and let us wear him away out
of the land of the living; and his name shall no more be
remembered."(11) Of course on His body that "wood" was put;(12) for so
Christ has revealed, calling His body "bread,"(13) whose body the
prophet in bygone days announced under the term "bread." If you shall
still seek for predictions of the Lord's cross, the twenty-first Psalm
will at length be able to satisfy you, containing as it does the whole
passion of Christ; singing, as He does, even at so early a date, His
own glory.(14) "They dug," He says, "my hands and feet"(15)—which is
the peculiar atrocity of the cross; and again when He implores the aid
of the Father, "Save me," He says, out of the mouth of the lion"—of
course, of death —"and from the horn of the unicorns my
humility,"(16)—from the ends, to wit, of the cross, as we have above
shown; which cross neither David himself suffered, nor any of the kings
of the Jews: that you may not think the passion of some other
particular man is here prophesied than His who alone was so signally
crucified by the People.
Now, if the hardness of your heart shall persist in rejecting and
deriding all these interpretations, we will prove that it may suffice
that the death of the Christ had been prophesied, in order that, from
the fact that the nature of the death had not been specified, it may be
understood to have been affected by means of the cross(17) and that the
passion of the cross is not to be ascribed to any but Him whose death
was constantly being predicted. For I desire to show, in one utterance
of Isaiah, His death, and passion, and sepulture. "By the crimes," he
says, "of my people was He led unto death; and I will give the evil for
His sepulture, and the rich for His death, because He did not
wickedness, nor was guile found in his mouth; and God willed to redeem
His soul from death,"(18) and so forth. He says again, moreover: "His
sepulture hath been taken away from the midst."(19) For neither was He
buried except He were dead, nor was His sepulture removed from the
midst except through His resurrection. Finally, he subjoins: "Therefore
He shall have many for an heritage, and of many shall He divide
spoils:(20)" who else (shall so do) but He who "was born," as we have
above shown?—"in return for the fact that His soul was delivered unto
death?" For, the cause of the favour accorded Him being shown,—in
return, to wit, for the injury of a death which had to be
recompensed,—it is likewise shown that He, destined to attain these
rewards because of death, was to attain them after death—of course
after resurrection. For that which happened at His passion, that
mid-day grew dark, the prophet Amos announces, saying, "And it shall
be," he says, "in that day, saith the Lord, the sun shall set at
mid-day, and the day of light shall grow dark over the land: and I will
convert your festive days into grief, and all your canticles into
lamentation; and I will lay upon your loins sackcloth, and upon every
head baldness; and I will make the grief like that for a beloved (son),
and them that are with him like a day of mourning."(1) For that you
would do thus at the beginning of the first month of your new (years)
even Moses prophesied, when he was foretelling that all the community
of the sons of lsrael was(2) to immolate at eventide a lamb, and were
to eat(3) this solemn sacrifice of this day (that is, of the passover
of unleavened bread) with bitterness;" and added that "it was the
passover of the Lord,"(4) that is, the passion of Christ. Which
prediction was thus also fulfilled, that "on the first day of
unleavened bread"(5) you slew Christ;(6) and (that the prophecies might
be fulfilled) the day hasted to make an "eventide,"—that is, to cause
darkness, which was made at mid-day; and thus "your festive days God
converted into grief, and your canticles into lamentation." For after
the passion of Christ there overtook you even captivity and dispersion,
predicted before through the Holy Spirit.
For, again, it is for these deserts of yours that Ezekiel
announces your ruin as about to come: and not only in this age(7)—a
ruin which has already befallen—but in the "day of retribution,"(8)
which will be subsequent. From which ruin none will be freed but he who
shall have been frontally sealed(9) with the passion of the Christ whom
you have rejected. For thus it is written: "And the Lord said unto me,
Son of man, thou hast seen what the elders of Israel do, each one of
them in darkness, each in a hidden bed-chamber: because they have said,
The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath derelinquished the earth. And He
said unto me, Turn thee again, and thou shall see greater enormities
which these do. And He introduced me unto the thresholds of the gate of
the house of the Lord which looketh unto the north; and, behold, there,
women sitting and bewailing Thammuz. And the Lord said unto me, Son of
man, hast thou seen? Is the house of Judah moderate, to do the
enormities which they have done? And yet thou art about to see greater
affections of theirs. And He introduced me into the inner shrine of the
house of the Lord; and, behold, on the thresholds of the house of the
Lord, between the midst of the porch and between the midst of the
altar,(10) as it were twenty and five men have turned their backs unto
the temple of the Lord, and their faces over against the east; these
were adoring the sun. And He said unto me, Seest thou, son of man? Are
such deeds trifles to the house of Judah, that they should do the
enormities which these have done? because they have filled up (the
measure of) their impieties, and, behold, are themselves, as it were,
grimacing; I will deal with mine indignation,(11) mine eye shall not
spare, neither will I pity; they shall cry out unto mine ears with a
loud voice, and I will not hear them, nay, I will not pity. And He
cried into mine ears with a loud voice, saying, The vengeance of this
city is at hand; and each one had vessels of extermination in his hand.
And, behold, six men were coming toward the way of the high gate which
was looking toward the north, and each one's double-axe of dispersion
was in his hand: and one man in the midst of them, clothed with a
garment reaching to the feet,(12) and a girdle of sapphire about his
loins: and they entered, and took their stand close to the brazen
altar. And the glory of the God of Israel, which was over the house, in
the open court of it,(13) ascended from the cherubim: and the Lord
called the man who was clothed with the garment reaching to the feet,
who had upon his loins the girdle; and said unto him, Pass through the
midst of Jerusalem, and write the sign Tau(1) on the foreheads of the
men who groan and grieve over all the enormities which are done in
their midst. And while these things were doing, He said unto an
hearer,(2) Go ye after him into the city, and cut short; and spare not
with your eyes, and pity not elder or youth or virgin; and little ones
and women slay ye all, that they may be thoroughly wiped away; but all
upon whom is the sign Tau approach ye not; and begin with my
saints."(3) Now the mystery of this "sign" was in various ways
predicted; (a "sign") in which the foundation of life was forelaid for
mankind; (a "sign") in which the Jews were not to believe: just as
Moses beforetime kept on announcing in Exodus,(4) saying, "Ye shall be
ejected from the land into which ye shall enter; and in those nations
ye shall not be able to rest: and there shall be instability of the
prints of thy foot: and God shall give thee a wearying heart, and a
pining soul, and failing eyes, that they see not: and thy life shall
hang on the tree(6) before thine eyes; and thou shalt not trust thy
life."
And so, since prophecy has been fulfilled through His
advent—that is, through the nativity, which we have above
commemorated, and the passion, which we have evidently explained—that
is the reason withal why Daniel said, "Vision and prophet were sealed;"
because Christ is the "signet" of all prophets, fulfilling all that had
in days bygone been announced concerning Him: for, since His advent and
personal passion, there is no longer "vision" or "prophet;" whence most
emphatically he says that His advent "seals vision and prophecy." And
thus, by showing "the number of the years, and the time of the lxii and
an half fulfilled hebdomads," we have proved that at that specified
time Christ came, that is, was born; and, (by showing the time) of the
"seven and an half hebdomads," which are subdivided so as to be cut off
from the former hebdomads, within which times we have shown Christ to
have suffered, and by the consequent conclusion of the "lxx hebdomads,"
and the extermination of the city, (we have proved) that "sacrifice and
unction" thenceforth cease.
Sufficient it is thus far, on these points, to have meantime
traced the course of the ordained path of Christ, by which He is proved
to be such as He used to be announced, even on the ground of that
agreement of Scriptures, which has enabled us to speak out, in
opposition to the Jews, on the ground(7) of the prejudgment of the
major part. For let them not question or deny the writings we produce;
that the fact also that things which were foretold as destined to
happen after Christ are being recognised as fulfilled may make it
impossible for them to deny (these writings) to be on a par with divine
Scriptures. Else, unless He were come after whom the things which were
wont to be announced had to be accomplished, would such as have been
completed be proved?(8)
Look at the universal nations thenceforth emerging from the
vortex of human error to the Lord God the Creator and His Christ; and
if you dare to deny that this was prophesied, forthwith occurs to you
the promise of the Father in the Psalms, which says, "My Son art Thou;
to-day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I will give Thee Gentiles
as Thine heritage, and as Thy possession the bounds of the earth."(9)
For you will not be able to affirm that "son" to be David rather than
Christ; or the "bounds of the earth" to have been promised rather to
David, who reigned within the single (country of) Judea, than to
Christ, who has already taken captive the whole orb with the faith of
His gospel; as He says through Isaiah: "Behold, I have given Thee for a
covenant(10) of my family, for a light of Gentiles, that Thou mayst
open the eyes of the blind"—of course, such as err—"to outloose from
bonds the bound"—that is, to free them from sins—"and from the house
of prison"—that is, of death—"such as sit in darkness"(11)—of
ignorance, to wit. And if these blessings accrue through Christ, they
will not have been prophesied of another than Him through whom we
consider them to have been accomplished.(12)
Therefore, since the sons of Israel affirm that we err in receiving the Christ, who is already come, let us put in a demurrer against them out of the Scriptures themselves, to the effect that the Christ who was the theme of prediction is come; albeit by the times of Daniel's prediction we have proved that the Christ is come already who was the theme of announcement. Now it behoved Him to be born in Bethlehem of Judah. For thus it is written in the prophet: "And thou, Bethlehem, are not the least in the leaders of Judah: for out of thee shall issue a Leader who shall feed my People lsrael."(1) But if hitherto he has not been born, what "leader" was it who was thus announced as to proceed from the tribe of Judah, out of Bethlehem? For it behoves him to proceed from the tribe of Judah and from Bethlehem. But we perceive that now none of the race of Israel has remained in Bethlehem; and (so it has been) ever since the interdict was issued forbidding any one of the Jews to linger in the confines of the very district, in order that this prophetic utterance also should be perfectly fulfilled: "Your land is desert, your cities burnt up by fire,"—that is, (he is foretelling) what will have happened to them in time of war "your region strangers shall eat up in your sight, and it shall be desert and subverted by alien peoples." (2) And in another place it is thus said through the prophet: "The King with His glory ye shall see,"—that is, Christ, doing deeds of power in the glory of God the Father;(3) "and your eyes shall see the land from afar,"(4)—which is what you do, being prohibited, in reward of your deserts, since the storming of Jerusalem, to enter into your land; it is permitted you merely to see it with your eyes from afar: "your soul," he says, "shall meditate terror,"(5)—namely, at the time when they suffered the ruin of themselves.(6) How, therefore, will a "leader" be born from Judea, and how far will he "proceed from Bethlehem," as the divine volumes of the prophets do plainly announce; since none at all is left there to this day of (the house of) Israel, of whose stock Christ could be born?
Now, if (according to the Jews) He is hitherto not come, when He
begins to come whence will He be anointed?(7) For the Law enjoined
that, in captivity, it was not lawful for the unction of the royal
chrism to be compounded.(8) But, if there is no longer "unction"
there(9) as Daniel prophesied (for he says, "Unction shall be
exterminated"), it follows that they(10) no longer have it, because
neither have they a temple where was the "horn"(11) from which kings
were wont to be anointed. If, then, there is no unction, whence shall
be anointed the "leader" who shall be born in Bethlehem? or how shall
he proceed "from Bethlehem," seeing that of the seed of Israel none at
all exists in Bethlehem.
A second time, in fact, let us show that Christ is already come,
(as foretold) through the prophets, and has suffered, and is already
received back in the heavens, and thence is to come accordingly as the
predictions prophesied. For, after His advent, we read, according to
Daniel, that the city itself had to be exterminated; and we recognise
that so it has befallen. For the Scripture says thus, that "the city
and the holy place are simultaneously exterminated together with the
leader,"(12)—undoubtedly (that Leader) who was to proceed "from
Bethlehem," and from the tribe of "Judah." Whence, again, it is
manifest that "the city must simultaneously be exterminated" at the
time when its "Leader" had to suffer in it, (as foretold) through the
Scriptures of the prophets, who say: "I have outstretched my hands the
whole day unto a People contumacious and gainsaying Me, who walketh in
a way not good, but after their own sins."(13) And in the Psalms, David
says: "They exterminated my hands and feet: they counted all my bones;
they themselves, moreover, contemplated and saw me, and in my thirst
slaked me with vinegar."(14) These things David did not suffer, so as
to seem justly to have spoken of himself; but the Christ who was
crucified. Moreover, the "hands and feet," are not "exterminated,"(15)
except His who is suspended on a "tree." Whence, again, David said that
"the Lord would reign from the tree:"(16) for elsewhere, too, the
prophet predicts the fruit of this "tree," saying "The earth hath given
her blessings,"(17)—of course that virgin-earth, not yet irrigated
with rains, nor fertilized by showers, out of which man was of yore
first formed, out of which now Christ through theflesh has been born of
a virgin; "and the tree,"(1) he says, "hath brought his fruit,"(2)—not
that "tree" in paradise which yielded death to the protoplasts, but the
"tree" of the passion of Christ, whence life, hanging, was by you not
believed!(3) For this "tree" in a mystery,(4) it was of yore wherewith
Moses sweetened the bitter water; whence the People, which was
perishing of thirst in the desert, drank and revived;(5) just as we do,
who, drawn out from the calamities of the heathendom(6) in which we
were tarrying perishing with thirst (that is, deprived of the divine
word), drinking, "by the faith which is on Him,"(7) the baptismal water
of the "tree" of the passion of Christ, have revived,—a faith from
which Israel has fallen away, (as foretold) through Jeremiah, who says,
"Send, and ask exceedingly whether such things have been done, whether
nations will change their gods (and these are not gods!). But My People
hath changed their glory: whence no profit shall accrue to them: the
heaven turned pale thereat" (and when did it turn pale? undoubtedly
when Christ suffered), "and shuddered," he says, "most exceedingly;"(8)
and "the sun grew dark at mid-day:"(9) (and when did it "shudder
exceedingly" except at the passion of Christ, when the earth also
trembled to her centre, and the veil of the temple was rent, and the
tombs were burst asunder?(10) "because these two evils hath My People
done; Me," He says, "they have quite forsaken, the fount of water of
life,(11) and they have digged for themselves worn-out tanks, which
will not be able to contain water." Undoubtedly, by not receiving
Christ, the "fount of water of life," they have begun to have "worn-out
tanks," that is, synagogues for the use of the "dispersions of the
Gentiles,"(12) in which the Holy Spirit no longer lingers, as for the
time past He was wont to tarry in the temple before the advent of
Christ, who is the true temple of God. For, that they should withal
suffer this thirst of the Divine Spirit, the prophet Isaiah had said,
saying:
"Behold, they who serve Me shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; they who serve Me shall drink, but ye shall thirst, and from general tribulation of spirit shall howl: for ye shall transmit your name for a satiety to Mine elect, but you the Lord shall slay; but for them who serve Me shall be named a new name, which shall be blessed in the lands."(13)
Again, the mystery of this "tree"(14) we read as being celebrated
even in the Books of the Reigns. For when the sons of the prophets were
cutting "wood"(15) with axes on the bank of the river Jordan, the iron
flew off and sank in the stream; and so, on Elisha(16) the prophet's
coming up, the sons of the prophets beg of him to extract from the
stream the iron which had sunk. And accordingly Elisha, having taken
"wood," and cast it into that place where the iron had been submerged,
forthwith it rose and swam on the surface,(17) and the "wood" sank,
which the sons of the prophets recovered.(18) Whence they understood
that Elijah's spirit was presently conferred upon him.(19) What is more
manifest than the mystery(20) of this "wood,"—that the obduracy of
this world(21) had been sunk in the profundity of error, and is freed
in baptism by the "wood" of Christ, that is, of His passion; in order
that what had formerly perished through the "tree" in Adam, should be
restored through the "tree" in Christ?(22) while we, of course, who
have succeeded to, and occupy, the room of the prophets, at the present
day sustain in the world(23) that treatment which the prophets always
suffered on account of divine religion: for some they stoned, some they
banished; more, however, they delivered to mortal slaughter,(24)—a
fact which they cannot deny.(25)
This "wood," again, Isaac the son of Abraham personally carried
for his own sacrifice, when God had enjoined that he should be made a
victim to Himself. But, because these had been mysteries(26) which were
being kept for perfect fulfilment in the times of Christ, Isaac, on the
one hand, with his "wood," was reserved, the ram being of- feted which
was caught by the horns in the bramble;(1) Christ, on the other hand,
in His times, carried His "wood" on His own shoulders, adhering to the
horns of the cross, with a thorny crown encircling His head. For Him it
behoved to be made a sacrifice on behalf of all Gentiles, who "was led
as a sheep for a victim, and, like a lamb voiceless before his shearer,
so opened not His mouth" (for He, when Pilate interrogated Him, spake
nothing(2)); for "in humility His judgment was taken away: His
nativity, moreover, who shall declare?" Because no one at all of human
beings was conscious of the nativity of Christ at His conception, when
as the Virgin Mary was found pregnant by the word of God; and because
"His life was to be taken from the land."(3) Why, accordingly, after
His resurrection from the dead, which was effected on the third day,
did the heavens receive Him back? It was in accordance with a prophecy
of Hosea, uttered on this wise: "Before daybreak shall they arise unto
Me, saying, Let us go and return unto the Lord our God, because Himself
will draw us out and free us. After a space of two days, on the third
day"(4)—which is His glorious resurrection—He received back into the
heavens (whence withal the Spirit Himself had come to the Virgin(5))
Him whose nativity and passion alike the Jews have failed to
acknowledge. Therefore, since the Jews still contend that the Christ is
not yet come, whom we have in so many ways approved(6) to be come, let
the Jews recognise their own fate,-a fate which they were constantly
foretold as destined to incur after the advent of the Christ, on
account of the impiety with which they despised and slew Him. For
first, from the day when, according to the saying of Isaiah, "a man
cast forth his abominations of gold and silver, which they made to
adore with vain and hurtful (rites),"(7)—that is, ever since we
Gentiles, with our breast doubly enlightened through Christ's truth,
cast forth (let the Jews see it) our idols,—what follows has likewise
been fulfilled. For "the Lord of Sabaoth hath taken away, among the
Jews from Jerusalem," among the other things named, "the wise
architect" too,(8) who builds the church, God's temple, and the holy
city, and the house of the Lord. For thenceforth God's grace desisted
(from working) among them. And "the clouds were commanded not to rain a
shower upon the vineyard of Sorek,"(9)—the clouds being celestial
benefits, which were commanded not to be forthcoming to the house of
Israel; for it "had borne thorns"—whereof that house of Israel had
wrought a crown for Christ—and not "righteousness, but a
clamour,"—the clamour whereby it had extorted His surrender to the
cross.(10) And thus, the former gifts of grace being withdrawn, "the
law and the prophets were until John,"(11)and the fishpool of
Bethsaida(12) until the advent of Christ: thereafter it ceased
curatively to remove from Israel infirmities of health; since, as the
result of their perseverance in their frenzy, the name of the Lord was
through them blasphemed, as it is written: "On your account the name of
God is blasphemed among the Gentiles:"(13) for it is from them that the
infamy (attached to that name) began, and (was propagated during) the
interval from Tiberius to Vespasian. And because they had committed
these crimes, and had failed to understand that Christ "was to be
found"(14) in "the time of their visitation,"(15) their land has been
made "desert, and their cities utterly burnt with fire, while strangers
devour their region in their sight: the daughter of Sion is derelict,
as a watch-tower in a vineyard, or as a shed in a cucumber
garden,"—ever since the time, to wit, when "Israel knew not" the Lord,
and "the People understood Him not;" but rather "quite forsook, and
provoked unto indignation, the Holy One of Israel."(16) So, again, we
find a conditional threat of the sword: "If ye shall have been
unwilling, and shall not have been obedient, the glaive shall eat you
up."(17) Whence we prove that the sword was CHRIST, by not hearing whom
they perished; who, again, in the Psalm, demands of the Father their
dispersion, saying, "Disperse them in Thy power;"(18) who, withal,
again through Isaiah prays for their utter burning. "On My account," He
says, "have these things happened to you; in anxiety shall ye
sleep."(19)
Since, therefore, the Jews were predicted as destined to suffer
these calamities an Christ's account, and we find that they have
suffered them, and see them sent into dispersion and abiding in it,
manifest it is that it is on Christ's account that these things have
befallen the Jews, the sense of the Scriptures harmonizing with the
issue of events and of the order of the times. Or else, if Christ is
not yet come, on whose account they were predicted as destined thus to
suffer, when He shall have come it follows that they will thus suffer.
And where will then be a daughter of Sion to be derelict, who now has
no existence? where the cities to be exust, which are already exust and
in heaps? where the dispersion of a race which is now in exile? Restore
to Judea the condition which Christ is to find; and (then, if you
will), contend that some other (Christ) is coming.
Learn now (over and above the immediate question) the clue to
your error. We affirm, two characters of the Christ demonstrated by the
prophets, and as many advents of His forenoted: one, in humility (of
course the first), when He has to be led "as a sheep for a victim; and,
as a lamb voiceless before the shearer, so He opened not His mouth,"
not even in His aspect comely. For "we have announced," says the
prophet, "concerning Him, (He is) as a little child, as a root in a
thirsty land; and there was not in Him attractiveness or glory. And we
saw Him, and He had not attractiveness or grace; but His mien was
unhonoured, deficient in comparison of the sons of men,"(1) "a man set
in the plague,(2) and knowing how to bear infirmity:" to wit as having
been set by the Father "for a stone of offence,"(3) and "made a little
lower" by Him "than angels,"(4) He pronounces Himself "a worm, and not
a man, an ignominy of man, and the refuse of the People."(5) Which
evidences of ignobility suit the FIRST ADVENT, just as those of
sublimity do the SECOND; when He shall be made no longer "a stone of
offence nor a rock of scandal," but "the highest corner-stone,"(6)
after reprobation (on earth) taken up (into heaven) and raised sublime
for the purpose of consummation,(7) and that "rock"—so we must
admit—which is read of in Daniel as forecut from a mount, which shall
crush and crumble the image of secular kingdoms.(8) Of which second
advent of the same (Christ) Daniel has said: "And, behold, as it were a
Son of man, coming with the clouds of the heaven, came unto the Ancient
of days, and was present in His sight; and they who were standing by
led (Him) unto Him. And there was given Him royal power; and all
nations of the earth, according to their race, and all glory, shall
serve Him: and His power is eternal, which shall not be taken away, and
His kingdom one which shall not be corrupted."(9) Then, assuredly, is
He to have an honourable mien, and a grace not "deficient more than the
sons of men;" for (He will then be) "blooming in beauty in comparison
with the sons of men."(10) "Grace," says the Psalmist, "hath been
outpoured in Thy lips: wherefore God hath blessed Thee unto eternity.
Gird Thee Thy sword around Thy thigh, most potent in Thy bloom and
beauty!" (10) while the Father withal afterwards, after making Him
somewhat lower than angels, "crowned Him with glory and honour and
subjected all things beneath His feet."(11) And then shall they "learn
to know Him whom they pierced, and shall beat their breasts tribe by
tribe;"(12) of course because in days bygone they did not know Him when
conditioned in the humility of human estate. Jeremiah says: "He is a
human being, and who will learn to know Him?"(13) because, "His
nativity," says Isaiah, "who shall declare?" So, too, in Zechariah, in
His own person, nay, in the very mystery(14) of His name withal, the
most true Priest of the Father, His own(15) Christ, is delineated in a
twofold garb with reference to the TWO ADVENTS.(16) First, He was clad
in "sordid attire," that is, in the indignity of passible and mortal
flesh, when the devil, withal, was opposing himself to Him—the
instigator, to wit, of Judas the traitor(17)—who even after His
baptism had tempted Him. In the next place, He was stripped of His
former sordid raiment, and adorned with a garment down to the foot, and
with a turban and a clean mitre, that is, (with the garb) of the SECOND
ADVENT; since He is demonstrated as having attained "glory and honour."
Nor will you be able to say that the man (there depicted) is "the son
of Jozadak,"(1) who was never at all clad in a sordid garment, but was
always adorned with the sacerdotal garment, nor ever deprived of the
sacerdotal function. But the "Jesus"(2) there alluded to is CHRIST, the
Priest of God the most high Father; who at His FIRST ADVENT came in
humility, in human form, and passible, even up to the period of His
passion; being Himself likewise made, through all (stages of suffering)
a victim for us all; who after His resurrection was "clad with a
garment down to the foot,"(3) and named the Priest of God the Father
unto eternity.(4) So, again, I will make an interpretation of the two
goats which were habitually offered on the fast-day.(5) Do not they,
too, point to each successive stage in the character of the Christ who
is already come? A pair, on the one hand, and consimilar (they were),
because of the identity of the Lord's general appearance, inasmuch as
He is not to come in some other form, seeing that He has to be
recognised by those by whom He was once hurt. But the one of them,
begirt with scarlet, amid cursing and universal spitting, and tearing,
and piercing, was cast away by the People outside the city into
perdition, marked with manifest tokens of Christ's passion; who, after
being begirt with scarlet garment, and subjected to universal spitting,
and afflicted with all contumelies, was crucified outside the city.(6)
The other, however: offered for sins, and given as food to the priests
merely of the temple,(7) gave signal evidences of the second
appearance; in so far as, after the expiation of all sins, the priests
of the spiritual temple, that is, of the church, were to enjoy(8) a
spiritual public distribution (as it were) of the Lord's grace, while
all others are fasting from salvation.
Therefore, since the vaticinations of the FIRST ADVENT obscured
it with manifold figures, and debased it with every dishonour, while
the SECOND (was foretold as) manifest and wholly worthy of God, it has
resulted therefrom, that, by fixing their gaze on that one alone which
they could easily understand and believe (that is, the SECOND, which is
in honour and glory), they have been (not undeservedly) deceived as to
the more obscure—at all events, the more unworthy—that is, the FIRST.
And thus to the present moment they affirm that their Christ is not
come, because He is not come in majesty; while they are ignorant of(9)
the fact that He was first to come in humility.
Enough it is, meantime, to have thus far followed the stream
downward of the order of Christ's course, whereby He is proved such as
He was habitually announced: in order that, as a result of this harmony
of the Divine Scriptures, we may understand; and that the events which
used to be predicted as destined to take place after Christ may be
believed to have been accomplished as the result of a divine
arrangement. For unless He come after whom they had to be accomplished,
by no means would the events, the future occurrence whereof was
predictively assigned to His advent, have come to pass. Therefore, if
you see universal nations thenceforth emerging from the profundity of
human error to God the Creator and His Christ (which you dare not
assert to have not been prophesied, because, albeit you were so to
assert, there would forthwith—as we have already premised(10)—occur
to you the promise of the Father saying, "My Son art Thou; I this day
have begotten Thee; ask of Me, and I will give Thee Gentiles as Thine
heritage, and as Thy possession the boundaries of the earth." Nor will
you be able to vindicate, as the subject of that prediction, rather the
son of David, Solomon, than Christ, God's Son; nor "the boundaries of
the earth," as promised rather to David's son, who reigned within the
single land of Judea, than to Christ the Son of God, who has already
illumined the whole world(11) with the rays of His gospel. In short,
again, a throne "unto the age"(12) is more suitable to Christ, God's
Son, than to Solomon,—a temporal king, to wit, who reigned over Israel
alone. For at the present day nations are invoking Christ which used
not to know Him; and peoples at the present day are fleeing in a body
to the Christ of whom in days bygone they were ignorant(13)), you
cannot contend that is future which you see taking place.(14) Either
deny that these events were prophesied, while they are seen before your
eyes; or else have been fulfilled, while you hear them read: or, on the
other hand, if you fail to deny each position, they will have their
fulfilment in Him with respect to whom they were prophesied.