rendered useless and invalid, and are regarded as if they did not exist at all.
2. Moreover, the exaction of praetorian and catepanic duties, and the redemption and exaction of flax and lard, which hitherto have infringed upon the immovable properties of your monasteries situated in the themes of Thrace and Macedonia, shall cease; for by this present decree they are cut off, rooted out, and reduced to a state of non-existence and namelessness. The praetors, exactors, and catepans, and those who perform the redemption or exaction of flax and lard, and those who assist them, are required to pass over such immovables B as if they were not situated in their districts at all; inasmuch as they are in no way to be sought by the treasury in all matters decreed in this way, from the beginning of this present day, and henceforth for all time and eternity, accepted without contradiction; nor shall they be considered as described in the public acts. Although they may not be described in the acts, but have been acknowledged in some other way, they are to be received as such.
3. If, moreover, anyone should dare to act against the provisions of these golden bulls and this present decree of my imperial majesty regarding any of the immovable possessions of your monasteries, besides the fact that he shall be held guilty of C treason (as has been defined in these golden bulls), he shall also be compelled by the most eminent *mystikos* of that time to repair any damage inflicted upon any of your possessions. In turn, it shall be the concern of all the monasteries, both those within the city and those outside, which fall under the boundaries encompassed by the golden bulls of my imperial majesty of blessed memory, the illustrious lord and father, to perform those things which have been declared in your petition, unless they wish to be deprived of such exemption, for the reason that they have neglected them once. D
Anno Domini MCLXXXIII.
ANDRONICUS COMNENUS.
NOTITIA.
Andronicus Comnenus was the grandson of the Emperor Alexius Comnenus I, or the Elder, and the son of Isaacius Comnenus, the Sebastocrator. He flourished in the year 1180, or thereabouts. Nicetas Choniates bears excellent testimony to his extraordinary erudition, singular eloquence, and exquisite knowledge of sacred Scripture; such is his testimony, which stands on a page of the Greco-Latin Parisian edition in these words:
A Paul’s Epistles”) he had everyone agreeing with his own opinion." That is, in this way Andronicus, speaking and writing with an incredible zeal and artfulness of oratory (for he was, like any other, skilled in letters and, inspired by the Holy Spirit, always had the orator Paul’s Epistles on his lips), drew everyone to his own view. So far Nicetas Choniates. He wrote, moreover, a *Dialogue against the Jews*, which exists in manuscript in the Imperial Library at Vienna, in the theological Greek manuscript codex 255, as Peter Lambeck has it in book v of the *Commentaries* of this Library, p. 169, in these words: "Manuscript theological Greek codex 255 is an ancient paper one, and of excellent quality, in folio, consisting of 138 leaves, which formerly belonged to Joannes Sambucus. In it is contained the *Dialogue against the Jews* of the Emperor Andronicus Comnenus, who nefariously slew the Emperor Alexius Comnenus II, or the Younger, in the year 1183, and was in turn slain by the seditious populace of Constantinople in the year 1185, whose title and beginning is: B
*The dogmatic grace of these words,* *Exposing the Hebrew error,* *Shows to the faithful the pious paths.* *I, Andronicus, wrote it with longing,* *Son of the emperor’s brother, of the Ausonian race,* *Of the Comnenian line, born of a sebastocrator,* *Brought forth onto the earth, and having looked upon the sweet light.*
*Docilis venustaque libelli gratia,* *Verpum retundit efficax insaniam,* *Piasque rite credulis monstrat vias.* *Huic Andronicus auctor est, sacer studii* *Frater potentis Ausonum lue soli* *Proimperator, quem satu Comnenides* *Eduxit orbi, et solis almo lumini.*
*Since many have attempted to demonstrate the wickedness of the lawless Jews, and how the merciful Lord and Guardian, not by signs alone, or by the Prophets, but by both together, in many ways and in many fashions, was managing their salvation,* etc. Where it is to be noted that this codex of said treatise, according to the opinion of Joannes Sambucus, is an autograph, or written out by the very hand of Andronicus himself; it has now been edited by Peter Stevart of Liège, but with a Latin translation only by Joannes Livineius, in the separate volume added to the *Ancient Readings* of Henricus Canisius, at Ingolstadt, by the Ederian press in the year 1616, in quarto. To this Livineius, Cardinal Sirlet, a most learned man, had lent his own Greek manuscript codex. C From this, however, it is manifestly clear how much the aforementioned Joannes Livineius is mistaken, who in the Preface to his Latin version of Andronicus’s *Dialogue against the Jews* asserts that it was composed in the year of Christ 1327. Which I followed in my *Supplement to Bellarmine*, at the year 1320, p. 593; but attributing this *Dialogue* to the Emperor Andronicus Comnenus II or the Younger, who obtained the empire in the year 1327. Neither is Cardinal Sirlet to be listened to in the least, who as Joannes Livineius reports in the same place, wrongly believed that the author of that *Dialogue* was not Andronicus Comnenus himself, but that the work was composed by Euthymius Zigabenus at his command alone. For that Andronicus himself composed this *Dialogue* by his own effort clearly appears from the verses exhibited above, which are prefixed to it in place of a title: just as it does from the testimony of Nicetas Choniates cited above, regarding the same Andronicus’s exceptional erudition, singular eloquence, and exquisite knowledge of sacred Scripture. There exists also a Greek manuscript in the Library of the Most Serene Duke of Bavaria, codex 128, as is plain from its catalogue, at the end of volume II of the *Sacred Apparatus* of Antonius Possevinus. They seem to have Andronicus Camaterus as author: the *Dialogue against the Latins on the procession of the Holy Spirit*, and the *Disputation of the Emperor with the doctor of the Armenians, Peter, on the two natures in Christ, and other chapters*. But not the *Opusculum against Joannes Veccus, Patriarch of Constantinople*, which are preserved in the same Bavarian Library, codex 120, by the testimony of the same Possevinus, in the Catalogue of that Library, p. 62. Finally, it is to be noted in the above-mentioned Latin edition of the *Dialogue* by Livineius and Stevart, that that *Dialogue* is divided into 64 chapters, but in this Imperial manuscript codex, there does not exist a trace of this division. D These things concerning it Lambeck in book v of the *Commentaries of the Imperial Library of Vienna*, p. 169 and 170, and in the *Catalogue of the writers of this volume*, p. 303 and 365. Henricus Wharton in the *Supplement to the Literary History of William Cave*, where on page 24, he refers this Andronicus the Constantinopolitan to the year 1327 with Livineius. But William Cave ascribes all these *Opuscula* to Andronicus Camaterus, Prefect of the city of Constantinople, in his *History of Literature*, part 1, at the year 1156, p. 676; and part II of his *Literary History* at the year 1183, p. 397, 398, which can with difficulty be reconciled with those things which his continuator Warthon writes at the year 1327, p. 24.
ANDRONICUS COMNENUS EMPEROR DIALOGUE AGAINST THE JEWS
CHAPTERS OF THE DISPUTATION AGAINST THE JEWS
I. Of God one and three, how difficult [it is] to understand. II. Even living creatures recognize God. III. God the Father begat. IV. Moses recognized the Trinity. V. The signification of God. VI. That Christ [was] begotten by the Father is shown from the prophets. VII. The same is shown from the Psalms. VIII. Divine generation cannot be grasped by the mind, and how it happens. IX. Of the Holy Spirit of the same nature as the Father. X. Similitudes exhibiting the Holy Trinity. XI. Of Divine Providence. XII. Why God concealed the mysteries of the faith from man at the beginning. XIII. The defection of the Jewish nation from God. XIV. Comparison of the Synagogue and the Gentiles. XV. The sons and affairs of Abraham compared with God. XVI. Why Abraham is commanded to sacrifice his son on the mountain. XVII. Isaac being offered as a type of the crucified Christ. XVIII. The ram with horns among the briars, what it signifies. XIX. Comparison of Jacob and Esau. XX. The affairs of Jacob compared with Christ. XXI. Jacob’s ladder as a type of the Blessed Virgin, and the rest of his deeds. XXII. What the two wives of Jacob designate. XXIII. The allegory of Joseph attributed to Christ. XXIV. The camel in Scripture designates hatred. XXV. Envy is more cruel than a wild beast. XXVI. Joseph in Egypt raised to the highest honors. XXVII. How great is the force of slander. XXVIII. The history of Moses mystically explained. XXIX. Of the Incarnation, or why the Son of God became man. XXX. Why Christ is man and God at the same time. XXXI. Why Christ willed to be born of a Virgin. XXXII. The double race, Gentile and Hebrew. XXXIII. The prophecy of Isaiah chapter 11, excellently explained concerning Christ. XXXIV. Oracles of other prophets concerning Christ. XXXV. Concerning Christ, God and man. XXXVI. Another passage of the seventh chapter of Isaiah concerning the Messiah explained. XXXVII. That God willed to become man and [be born] from the line of David. XXXVIII. That Mary sprung from the line of David, from the genealogy of the Jews. XXXIX. The prophecy of Daniel concerning Christ’s advent. XL. Calamities brought upon the Jews on account of their perfidy. XLI. That the death inflicted upon Christ was the greatest of sins. XLII. Of the advent of the Antichrist. XLIII. Of the veneration of images. XLIV. Two examples of the perfidy of the Jews. XLV. Of the baptism of Christians, and its comparison with circumcision. XLVI. By what names baptism was once designated. XLVII. Comparison of Elijah with Christ. XLVIII. Comparison of the law of Christ with that of Moses. XLIX. Prophecies concerning the abrogation of the Jewish law. L. Prophecies concerning the evangelical law. LI. The first chapter of Isaiah speaks elegantly against the Jews and is explained. LII. Prophecies concerning the conversion of the Gentiles and the stubbornness of the Jews. LIII. Prophecies concerning the nativity of Christ. LIV. Prophecies concerning the rejected Jewish people, and the calling of the Gentiles. LV. Prophecies concerning the death and resurrection of Christ. LVI. The second Psalm is expounded. LVII. Psalm 21 is elegantly explained concerning the passion of Christ. LVIII. Of the Sabbath of the Jews and the Lord’s day of the Christians. LIX. The showbread as a type of the Lord’s body. LX. Of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. LXI. Of the despoiling of hell and the resurrection of the dead. LXII. Christ, once dead, escaped corruption. LXIII. That Christ, after the resurrection, ate and ascended into heaven. LXIV. Of the second advent of Christ for judgment.
DIALOGUE OF EMPEROR ANDRONICUS COMNENUS AGAINST THE JEWS, BETWEEN A CHRISTIAN AND A JEW
A (1) Since many of the wicked Jews have attempted to display their impiety, and [have attempted] to set forth how the merciful Lord and guardian, working out their salvation not by signs alone or by prophets, but by both together manifoldly and in many ways, delivered them from the bitter Pharaonic slavery; and led them miraculously through the Red Sea; and overwhelmed Pharaoh as he dared to tread the impassable path; and cast down the satraps who mocked the promised land; and raised up those who were afflicted and exhausted in Egypt by clay, brick-making, and straw; and led them through the desert; and preserved their garments intact—He who covers the heaven with clouds; and that heavenly bread showered down angelic bread and the flesh of birds; and He who established the earth upon the waters transformed a rock into a fountain of water—then, what is first and greatest, He, the maker and architect of human nature, was not ashamed to call Himself their God. And lest, by detailing each of the wonders of my God, I should create satiety for the guests at the church’s daily prepared table: come, let us also urge the colt toward the turn-about, and let us set forth, as it were, newer and pleasanter food. For—
I too, O faithful and holy flock of Christ (for thus I address you, following the voices of the elders and the prophetic oracles, as a peculiar people, a holy nation, heirs of the life hereafter and of the promised kingdom), was reluctant to write—partly, I will confess the truth, because I embraced the writers and held them in high regard; and partly because, conscious of my own ignorance, I feared that one whose talent is daily alienated from good letters would produce nothing that could contribute to glory. For a withered and unplowed land cannot by any means bring forth abundant ears of grain. But not only in this illustrious and royal city, but also in Orestiade and in Thessaly, I encountered certain clever experts in the law who, making of themselves a Jewish B religion...
TO THE JEWS
For what reason have you come to me today, possessing a zeal for the Mosaic law, but not according to knowledge?
The Jews. Having learned that you are a zealot for the things of Christ, but one who holds the things of Moses in contempt, we have come to be hearers of what is said.
...but I have turned aside to unreasonable and strange desires. [He] spurs the colt at the turn-about. C D
A For although they fought for the religion, they did so not with the true light and instinct of the Divine Spirit; but they busied themselves with the crude, so to speak, and shadowed study of the sacred Scriptures, and, bent and fixed upon the earth, they could not look up. When I had encountered those who indeed heard what they ought, but blurted out what they ought not—not because the law was instructing them so (far be it), but because they were unable to grasp the law—just as the sun, the prince of lights, when it moves forward and shines upon others, still does not cast its rays upon the blind; so, truly, the difficulty of the Law is evident and clear to those of a purged mind, but for the sluggish it is cloudy and turbid. For the veil of the Law, as Moses calls it, remains to this day, not in the writing, but in the minds of men. Having noticed this ignorance, such that a certain excellent old man, forgetting his old age, leaped forward to enter into a struggle with the young, I myself, having also cast off the mark of timidity, took pains to commit the questions and answers of both sides to writing: for a great mind, professing a zeal for God, can attempt even things that are beyond its strength. Therefore, the bare words of the questions and answers are proposed first.
CHRISTIAN. Why is it that you, who have a zeal for the Mosaic law, but not according to knowledge, have gathered to me today?
JEWS. For we, having understood you to be an emulator of Christian things, have come to hear face-to-face the things that are said, even if you contemptuously regard what is Mosaic.
CHRIST. I have professed, and I do profess, and to my last breath I will profess, to defend the precepts of God and His saving incarnation for us mortals. But the Mosaic law, which is as a shadow and figure of our salvation and restoration, I do not so much despise as I honor and embrace it.
JUD. But if you embrace the Mosaic law, and this opinion did not just drop from your lips, formed falsely, why do you consider us, who fight for it, to be violators of the Law?
CHRIST. B Being cross-examined by us Christians on two charges, Jews, which do you bid to be proposed for judgment to you? The violation of the Law with the murder and persecution of the prophets? Or the rejection of the light, and not only the failure to receive Him who was preached, but also His unjust slaughter at your hands? —even though your ancestors, in putting Him to death, denied that it was lawful for them to kill anyone.
JUD. Since one is the head of the Law and the Prophets, hasten to set this truth before our eyes. For if you will demonstrate this, we shall confess ourselves guilty in both; only let this proof not be sought from your own, but from our prophets.
CHRIST. But if I do the same from the prophetic predictions, will you confess that you have erred?
JUD. Indeed. But first remove from our minds one scruple (we ask): Why are three gods honored and acknowledged by you Christians? When the Mosaic law does not permit this; nay, it cries out clearly: "I am who I am." And again: "You shall not adore an alien god; for I am the Lord thy God, a jealous God."
CHAPTER 1. On the One and Triune God.
CHRIST. By this doctrine, O Jews, the entire mystery of theology is completed. But indeed, the doctors of our Church teach us to shudder, both in tongue and in mind, if ever we dare to utter anything about God. For although man is the most insignificant of all things created under heaven, he is yet too unequal to contemplate the divine light.
C Indeed, the earthly flesh—bent down to the soil, which, for the sake of material study, busies itself with the affairs of the world, and is accustomed to and delights in those things that are below—labors heavily to devote itself to sublime care. And as the cloud stood like a wall between the Hebrews and the Egyptians, so, indeed, this bodily darkness stands in the middle between God and us. For this reason, I think, even David, one of the ancestors of Christ, sang to man: "He made darkness His hiding-place." D Expressing thereby our stupor, because of which few barely, or hardly, look up to higher things. And who are they? Those whose bodies are not only purged by maceration and fasting, but whose very minds are so fashioned that they are always conjoined with the divine will. For I believe that they are in turn afflicted by the divine light, who mingle that which is divine in themselves (I mean reason and mind) with the study of God, while they raise themselves in the image toward the primal exemplar.
CHRIST. If indeed you move these questions for the sake of fruit, and strive to submit the more inequitable parts to the more equitable, it will be proper, I think, to inquire into the reasons of the principle of all wisdom, placing the most certain hope in the stable scales of justice and of truth itself. But if you urge the conversation for the sake of arguing and for the ostentation of speaking, know this: those who are judged by our Church do not boast of themselves with such habits. For one of our profession says: "He who fights in a dispute to establish his own opinion, however true the things he says may be, labors under the disease of the devil."
A For that anyone has known God, or that anyone has offered testimony to having known Him, he has known Him only in such a way that He would not appear clearer to another by virtue of being illuminated by Him—since it is believed that a certain perfection is conferred upon another, not in reality, but by the comparison of the powers of others. Indeed, Enos was the first to begin to call upon the name of the Lord; and his zeal was called by his contemporaries "knowledge of God." And deservedly so, for how could you call upon one you do not know? Enoch, who was translated, is uncertain if he knew God beforehand. Noah, most acceptable to God, is granted knowledge of the survival of the ark. Abraham, that great man justified by faith, slaughters the foreign sacrifice as a type of God to be slaughtered for our sake. But he did not see God as God, but received Him as a man for a meal, and was praised because he had honored Him as much as he had perceived Him. Jacob sees the ladder and the angels ascending and descending it; he mystically anointed with oil the stone set up as a monument, perhaps to signify the stone anointed for our sake; and he gives a name to the place from the Vision of God, in honor of the Vision itself, when he wrestles with God as with a man (whatever, after all, the struggle of God with men may be. Or is it perhaps a contention of human virtue with the divine?). He bears the marks of the struggle in his body, which would designate a nature overcome in generation; he receives the reward of piety in the change of his name, being called Israel instead of Jacob, a truly august and illustrious nomenclature. Yet neither he, nor anyone before or after him to this day, has ventured to boast that he has grasped the nature or the sight of God. A certain gentle breeze and a chariot of fire take Elijah up into heaven, signifying a just man greater than an ordinary one. Manoah, who could not bear the sight of God appearing, said to his wife: "We shall die because we have seen the Lord." For human nature cannot comprehend not only the divine nature but not even its splendor. Isaiah and Ezekiel were beholders of great things: for the former sees Sabaoth on the throne of divine majesty, with the Seraphim surrounding him, praising him, and veiling him, having six wings; where he himself, purified by the coal, is sent to prophesy. The latter also describes the vehicle of God and the Cherubim, and the throne standing above it, and the upper firmament, and who was represented upon it, and then also certain voices, and impulses, and functions. And all these things, whether they have been a certain manifest apparition, visible to the saints, or a nocturnal vision that is in no way deceptive, or a formation in the mind which represents future things as present, or another secret kind of prophecy, which God alone, the God of the prophets, knows. Solomon (the words of Scripture), to whom God gave wisdom and understanding very abundant, and largeness of heart, as the sand that is on the seashore B of the sea: and the wisdom of Solomon surpassed the wisdom of all the Orientals and the Egyptians, and he was wiser than all men; the more deeply he penetrates the depths, the more he hesitates, and he decides to fix [no limit] to wisdom, striving to find out how much he has escaped.
David, "a man according to God's own heart," sometimes calls the judgments of God "a great abyss." Elsewhere he says: "Thy knowledge has become wonderful out of itself." Moses, that summit of prophets, who was also dear to God and celebrated above all in his own time, after forty days of rites and purification, and cloud, and thunder, and trumpets, could barely see the back parts of God: whether you judge these to be the arrangements and works of God, or you speak of the incarnation of the Word and His Son, to be provided in an ineffable manner in the last times for the salvation of mortals. But neither they, nor anyone equal to them, grasped the substance and essence of God, as it is written, nor did he perceive or explain the nature of God; but all from then until now "know in part and prophesy in part." And I say that all are equal to them in spirit. And why speak of God being seen by any man? They who cannot even explain created things precisely. This, indeed, is the sentiment of the great David: "For then I will see thy heavens, the works of thy fingers." Then: when? When I have departed from this tabernacle, and being freed from gross corruption, I shall be illuminated by the most limpid light. Do you see the noble prophet? And these things are therein. In another place: "Hidden and secret things of thy wisdom thou hast manifested to me." For C if it is indeed known to the prophet that the heavens are the work of God, having been perceived, then he will hold it more exactly when he will accurately perceive not only their power and nature, but also their cause, and by what [reason] they were established by the Creator God. For then he will not follow them as if they were mere extended skins, but will attain the true knowledge of His nature. But if men of such stature, pondering even a little about created things in this tabernacle, have attained this, why, then, would someone like me, full of the stains of sins, dare to think or speak?
D Nevertheless, I will tell you what we believe with certainty and without controversy to be of the prophets. Let the Trinity, preached by the prophets, the true God of one nature, make the discourse easy to follow. I believe in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the one nature and undivided Trinity; not as three gods, but one divinity to be acknowledged in three persons: without beginning, without end, the eternal Father, the architect of all visible and intelligible nature. The Son begotten of the Father, as light from light, true God from true God. Begotten not made, immortal, consubstantial, always existing with the Father, sharer of the throne and of works, com-
- A perennially and infinitely. I believe in the Holy Spirit, not begotten but proceeding from the Father, consubstantial, coeternal, and immense; with the Father and the Son to be worshipped and glorified together.
And regarding God, who is without beginning, and the Father [(9)], not only you, but indeed the whole human race will agree, as will nature itself, and the law, which is the teacher of nature. For in what way would this universe of things either have existed or persisted, unless God had both produced and sustained all things? For, neither does he who sees a lyre, most beautifully constructed and in every way most apt, or hears a lyre-player, revolve any other thing in his mind than the creator of the lyre and the lyre-player; and he will fly in his mind toward him, even if he has not yet been seen by his eyes.
CAPTURE II
Living beings also acknowledge God.
But why, indeed, do I recount mortals and this whole universe? Since even the terrestrial beasts recognize their Maker and have perpetual need of his provision, for David also writes of this: "The whelps of the lions roaring, that they may snatch and seek their food from God." And the same elsewhere: "Who gives to the beasts their food; and to the young of the ravens that call upon him." What therefore is sufficient regarding God and the Father? Are you by nature even duller than the dull beasts?
CAPTURE III
God the Father begat.
B JUD. We do not doubt this; but we doubt whether God begat. CHRIST. I wish, O Jews, that for the sake of this scruple of yours, Moses were alive today. For I suppose that even he would scarcely impose silence upon you. JUD. But where is it established that Moses remembers him? CHRIST. Circumcise your heart, I say; that is, set aside this excessive arrogance from your minds; and you will find not only Moses, but many other prophets, not only remembering but even speaking out openly. For, in the creation of God, Moses says: "Let us make man to our image and likeness." And after a little: "Behold, Adam has become as one of us." And in the confusion of tongues, God says: "Come, let us descend, and let us confuse there their language." It must be inquired, therefore, with whom he who created himself was conferring counsel. JUD. We suppose it was with the angels. CHRIST. That opinion is mindless and utterly absurd. For what potter confers in speech with a clay vessel? C What craftsman, to be brief, speaks with the iron for the purpose of forging and preparing it? And yet, those things which we fashion are more closely bound and akin to our nature, being constituted from the same clay and the same elements. But all celestial things, and those which are above the heavens, although their nature is further removed from us, and they are closer to God; yet they are still further distant from God and his perfect comprehension than this our composite body, humble and cast down to the ground, is surpassed by those celestial things. Wherefore, there is no doubt that God the Father conferred this—if I may so speak—architectural discourse concerning creation with the associate of his work, namely his Son.
JUD. We grant and confess, indeed, that the true God does not stand in need of help and counsel for the creatures which he created, whether you call him intelligent or sentient nature. But that there is a Son to God, or that generation is fitting to him, Moses has not handed down to us; but: "I am the Lord thy God." And: "See that I am alone, and there is no other God, beside me." And, "Do not worship a strange God." CHRIST. I have told you, O Jews, that even if Moses were alive, he would with difficulty impose silence upon you. For since he is detestable who proclaims a God other than the God of Moses, then at length that which you are arguing would have a place: if I were proclaiming a Son of a different nature. Now, since I say that the Son is of the same nature as God the Father, what is the discord? For we confess the same God of Moses, the Father of the begotten Son; and again, the Son of the same nature with the begetting Father. For, although Moses says: "The Lord our God, God is one," he signified not substances, but nature by those words; for we agree that the nature of the Father and the Son is one.
JUD. A fine consultation regarding the Father's fabrication proves to us the agreement of nature with him of the Son. But explain, we pray, why we have not received it more clearly from Moses. CHRIST. No perfect master of the sciences, having undertaken to teach boys, sets forth the highest things of the disciplines at the first rudiments and studies; but, having made a beginning from the doctrine of elements, he gradually leads them toward perfection. And that happens not by the fault of the teacher, but by the ignorance of the disciples, who, since they are so crude, cannot make a step toward grasping greater things.
CAPTURE IV
Moses recognizes the Trinity.
D In the same way, it is fitting that most wise Moses had the Holy Trinity and Unity in view; but to you, being utterly rebellious both because of the abundance of gods and because of the idol-offerings and meats, he did not reveal the perfect religion; nor yet did he remain silent, but he tried to lift you up in whatever way he could to the knowledge of God. For, seeing that your ancestors were infants in piety, divine Moses, like a best nurse, provided them with a certain milk of the knowledge of God, having left all solid...
A doctrine after himself for the prophets. And he did this not in counsel only, but also in image, and in other things. For he indicated that God made man to His own image, but what that image was, he left for his hearers to seek. For that which you have prepared with effort, that you carry about in your mind as a tenacious and perpetual monument; that which is gained lightly, easily slips away, as if it had been sought. And so Moses referred the question to you, but the solution to the prophets. For if, even after God was known, and infinite benefits had been received from Him, and Moses had departed from you to God for a while in order to exhibit the will of God in divinely inscribed writings, you rendered thanks to another god, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of a calf that eats hay; how much more would your ancestors not have fallen into the precipice of multiplied gods, if they had learned of God the three hypostases from Moses?
JUD. We are not now here to understand the offenses of our ancestors. But tell me, as you were saying, is God comprehended in three persons? Therefore, demonstrate the truth to us here, and how the prophet signifies God as begotten.
CHRIST. It is established to you, O Jews, that no one of the holy prophets ever comprehended the hypostasis or essence of God by imagination. Therefore, hold this for certain: that they were not able to signify the essence of God—not even His action alone—let alone bring forth His nature or even His name. This is why David employed that expression, "Thy hands have made me and fashioned me," not as if God had hands (for the Divine is incorporeal and without figure), but signifying the workmanship of God. And again: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and His ears unto their prayers; but the countenance of the Lord is upon those who do evil," signifying the beneficence of God to the former, and in the latter, His judiciary power. Indeed, even in the names of God, the saints strive to express not the divine nature, but His function and the hidden efficacy of His working, derived from those very names. For those names—Lord, Adonai, and Sabaoth, Almighty and Savior—signify action, not nature.
Chapter 5. The signification of God.
Again Moses, who was an ambassador to the people for a certain business, when he asked what he should answer if they should ask him who had sent him, hears this from God: "I am Who is." Which word does not represent His nature, but His state and permanence. Wherefore also the prophets did not write down the apparitions of the Holy Trinity in their pure state, but each according to his own capacity. It is necessary, therefore, that those who are studious of the knowledge of God should look into all the Holy Scripture as into a mirror, and collate from one notion after another, as it were, into one single image of truth. For God taught us this through Moses, first handing down to him the tablets inscribed by Himself, and the second time likewise. But what does He command him? "Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the former, and I will write upon them the words which the tablets had B which you broke." Likewise, when leading the Israelites out of Egypt, God Himself led them through many and coarse miracles. For what is coarser than for fire to go before them by night, and a cloud by day? Or again, what is coarser than to divide the sea and show a rock as a fountain gushing forth water in abundance? But when your ancestors were still blind and dull of hearing, then indeed God announced His will through the coverings of the prophets, so that, understanding into what dignity you have fallen, you might study to recover your ancient nobility through a certain more laborious way. And the same must be observed in our primal parent. For he, before he had violated the command, was appointed by God not only as king of all earthly natures, but also as a prophet, imposing names upon all birds and beasts. But after the fall, his descendants not only fell from the kingdom, but also commonly judged created things to be gods, as Solomon says: "For all men are vain in whom there is no knowledge of God; and from the things that are seen to be good, they could not understand Him who is; neither by attending to the works, have they acknowledged who the workman was: but have imagined either fire, or spirit, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the great water, or the sun and moon, to be the gods that govern the world. If, being delighted with their beauty, they thought them to be gods, let them know how much the Lord of them C is more beautiful. For the generator of beauty constituted all these things. Or if they admired their power and operations, let them understand from them that He who D made these things is mightier than they: for by the greatness of the beauty and the creature, the Creator of them can be seen." See how, after the sin, God did not converse face-to-face with men, as He did with Adam, but allowed them to be led to the knowledge of Himself from the beauty of His works. But if Solomon rightly called them vain, how much more vain would he call you, if he were alive today? For they perhaps have that for which they might be worthy of pardon. Why so? Because they had not the knowledge of God...
but were constrained by ignorance. You, however, in the midst of such a host of prophets and multitude of writers, do not investigate, to such an extent that you even adulterate what has been written. A
Jew. By Moses, who parted the Red Sea with his right hand, you tell of all things truly! Wherefore, while we are here with you, let us unfold the Scripture. You, as we said before, show us: which of our prophets speaks of the generation of God, or usurps "begotten God"? For this indeed more than anything casts our minds into stupor and doubt.
CAPUT VI.
Ex prophetis ostenditur Christum a Patre genitum.Christ. I have already said it. The prophets wrote of God not as He is in His magnitude, but as much as they were able to attain by thinking. For how could that which is incomprehensible be comprehended? For since one cannot count the sands of the sea, and the drops of rain, and the multitude of the stars, will one clearly comprehend God, who lacks beginning and end? Therefore, one has called the wisdom of God the Son; another, mind; another, the representation of light; another, a certain expressed form; another, powers; another, the Son; all mean one and the same B thing. But if you receive the voices of the prophets otherwise, I fear lest, fleeing from the splendid light of the Most Holy Trinity, you precipitate yourselves into the deep of many gods. Therefore, listen again to Solomon crying out openly: "Wisdom is more mobile than all mobile things; and it attains everywhere on account of its purity. For it is a vapor of the virtue of God, and a certain emanation of the clear brilliance of the almighty God: and therefore nothing defiled enters into it. For it is a brightness of eternal light, and a spotless mirror of the majesty of God, and an image of His goodness." But omitting what is in the Book of Wisdom, I shall pursue the image alone. Are there, do you think, painters and colors in heaven?
Jew. Not at all.
Christ. And what then is this image of the goodness of God? Not only an image simply, but similar in all things? Therefore, either concede the image, or confess with me that the Son is of one nature and substance with the Father.
Jew. We confess it; but, I pray, explain the same to us from another prophet.
Christ. The words of Isaiah are: "A child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the principality is made upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called the Angel of the great counsel, wonderful, counselor." Do you see the Counselor of the Father? Do you see the Angel of the great counsel? For the Son is the Angel, C who is the counselor of the secret hidden from all eternity by the Father, who heard from the Father: "Let us make man to our image and likeness." And again: "Behold, Adam is become as one of us. Now, therefore, lest perhaps he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever," let us cast him out of paradise. And again: "Come, let us go down, and there confound their language." D
Furthermore, that He is the Counselor A, not an Angel, he himself resolves the doubt; for he did not say, "His name shall be Angel," but "He shall be called," that is, he who is God, who already long ago took counsel, shall be called the Angel. And lest anyone should imagine that this was said of some incorporeal power, he names Him God, and little by little, bringing into the light what was obscure, he says: "The Mighty, the Powerful, the Prince of Peace, the Father of the world to come."
CHAPTER VII.
The same is shown from the Psalms.
David’s opinion also is this: "His name shall remain before the sun."
Jude. It seems unreasonable to us that this sentiment should be referred to Christ. We say, indeed, that David composed the seventy-first psalm concerning his own son. Therefore, cease to misuse this testimony, and move on to another prophet.
Christ. By the immortal God! Truly I bear witness to the God of the Prophet and King; far be it that I should turn to another discussion unless, having examined the whole psalm, I shall give a most certain confirmation of its meaning! To us, indeed, there is no doubt that these words—"O God, give thy judgment to the king, and thy justice to the king's son: to judge thy people with justice, and thy poor in judgment. Let the mountains receive peace for the people, and the hills justice. He shall judge the poor of the people, and he shall save the children of the poor, and shall humble the false accuser"—that all these, I say, look to Christ, there is no doubt for us; which you distort and pervert, thinking they are said of Solomon; nor, while you injure the truth, do you think you injure yourselves; for everyone who is injured is prompt to defend himself. And I shall answer you nothing further regarding these, but the very author of the psalm, David, whose seed was promised to be Christ, the lyre of the Holy Spirit, B stopping your mouths, continues the psalm as follows, writing: "And he shall remain with the sun." Did Solomon, therefore, endure as long as the sun? And how? He who did not even exceed his father in his years of reign. And in another psalm of David there are these words: "The days of our years in them are seventy years; but if in the strong, eighty years: and what is more of them is labor and sorrow." Wherefore one can live even more years. You see how David removes his son from this psalm of ours? For if Solomon’s life did not reach eighty years, how at length, and for how long, shall he endure before the sun and the moon? And truly he did not say that in passing, but added: "Throughout all generations." But Solomon was born in the middle times C since the creation of the world: "He shall come down like rain upon the fleece, and as showers falling gently upon the earth." He was conceived not only from adultery, but even through murder. Which wickedness of his God rebuked through Nathan, and made public. And, indeed, these things are not brought forward by me with the intention of insulting the ancestors of the God-man, but for the sake of checking your contumacy. "Justice shall rise in his days, and abundance of peace, until the moon be taken away." He not only perished as is the lot of man, but during his reign not a few slaughters and captivities occurred, such as never happened before. "And he shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down." He ruled the scepters of the paternal kingdom alone; a fact which all who remember the Jewish empire know. "And his enemies shall lick the earth." His enemies did not lick the dust to such a degree that even Jeroboam, his servant, turning the kingdom away from him, usurped and occupied it for himself. "The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents: the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts." Or if it pleases you, name which kings these are, and present their gifts (although even by acting long and much, you will be acting nothing); or that which follows: "And all kings of the earth shall adore him"—a mad invention refuted "All nations shall serve him." They were so far from serving him, that after he admitted things forbidden by the laws to God, and built temples to idols, Adad the Edomite, and Rakon the prince of Damascus, revolted from him: and so far were the nations from worshiping him, that while still surviving, he heard from God that his kingdom was broken and torn away, to be given to a servant, not a son. Of whom, therefore, did the psalmist edit the psalm? For the things I have said clearly reject Solomon.
Jude. We hold it now as well and thoroughly examined that these things were not written concerning Solomon; as to whom else, we do not know.
Christ. Let us, if you please, both inquire of David.
Jude. Shall David, already dead for so many years, reply today?
Christ. He will reply indeed, believe me, if we study diligently. Tell me, David, who is this of whom you said: "And he shall remain with the sun and before the moon"? And that: "Before the sun his name remaineth," and the rest which you sang in that psalm? Who is the Lord, the God of the Israelites to be proclaimed? "Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel: and blessed be the name of his majesty for ever: and the whole earth shall be filled with his majesty. Amen, amen." What then? Are these sufficient, or shall we add more? Hear Isaiah saying: "Who among you..."
fears the Lord, and obeys the voice of his servant?" And Wisdom: "Since they would not listen to my Son, I also will not hear them, says the Lord Almighty." And Hosea, in the person of God: "Out of Egypt I have called my son." And David: "The Lord said to my Lord." What then do you conclude from this? To what other Lord did the Lord say this? Or to what other Lord, except the Lord God the Father, to the Lord—that is, to the Son, who is God of the same nature? For no other sits at the right hand of God and the Father than God and the Son of the same nature. And that this is most true, receive it from David, writing thus a little later: "From the womb before the morning star I have begotten you." Why, indeed, did He say not only "from the womb," but also "before the morning star"? It was to show that the Son is of one nature with the Father. For what He says, "from the womb," clearly implies nothing else than nature and power, and kinship. For who could be begotten from a womb in any other way than as kin and agreeable to the one who begets? And what He says, "before the morning star," designates the Son as co-eternal, equally apart from a beginning, and the author of time.
Jud: Immortal God! You have so overwhelmed us that what you have said is easily sufficient, and there is not even a little left that we could say against it. But it is a matter of religion for us to even think of God as begotten. For "begetting" denotes suffering, while all the prophets with one voice proclaim God to be impassible and incorrupt.
Christ: I have already bidden you to search the Scriptures; and not to look at what is crude and thick in the letter; but to take the doubtful and obscure sayings of the prophets as if by hand, and to refer all things to God. Therefore, read so that you may understand; or if you do not wish to understand, do not read at all; lest, by understanding what you read in an absurd way, you be condemned. For the prophet predicted this; for I do not say it myself, that anyone of the holy prophets has ever penetrated to the comprehension of the divine nature. And who, therefore, would dare or be able to address the eternal generation of God and attain it by speaking? For where time and age do not intervene, and no spectator was present, no interpreter is available, how can the truth be brought into sight and light?
Chapter 8. Divine generation cannot be comprehended by the mind, and how it occurs.
If you will obey the warning of Solomon: "From the greatness of the beauty and of the creature, the creator of them may be seen so as to be known," you will also easily and properly attain this great difficulty from created things. For if in this created and sensible nature we grant that birth happens without suffering, much more is the Creator, the Son, begotten of the Father without flux and suffering; just as speech from the mind, or light from the sun. God and Lord, the lover of men, A knowing that these things could not be apprehended by our earthly and weak intellects, showed them by means of certain examples B subjected to the senses. And to this opinion of ours, Solomon bears witness: "For if they were delighted with the power and the works of creatures, even if they thought them to be gods, let them understand from them that He who made these is stronger than they." Therefore, if you also, led by the hand from those things which were created and are subject to sense, admit and clearly confess the generation of God without suffering, how beautiful is this confession of yours! But if you still hold to your old ways, fie! on your arrogance, by which you are revolved from one question and defense to another! Whence do you think light is begotten, which pervades the whole world under heaven?
Jud: From the sun.
Christ: And does any suffering intervene between the sun and the light, when the light emanates from the sun?
Jud: Not at all.
Christ: But truly, from where do you believe the ray arises?
Jud: From the sun, likewise through the light.
Christ: Furthermore, do you confess that the effluence of the rays from the sun happens without suffering?
Jud: Indeed, we confess that that is the case.
Christ: Since you confess that it is so, let this other example also be added. The mind begets thought, and once begotten, it makes the perception clear through articulated voice. But the mind, the thought, and the voice are impassible; however much the voice is made an act of air: it brings into the light the knowledge of the mind. And that this is most true, conduct a test from a mute person; for this one also has mind, and thought, and voice; but since he cannot do so through articulation (for he does not have the impassible sense of hearing), he brings forth knowledge through a kind of imitation and gesture.
Jud: Thanks be to the all-good God. We no longer have any doubts, neither concerning God and the Father, nor concerning the Son of the same nature, for you have demonstrated these things beautifully and clearly. Therefore, discourse also concerning the Holy Spirit, I pray, and which prophet indicates that He is uncreated and of the same nature.
Chapter IX. De Spiritu sancto ejusdem cum Patre natura.
Christ: Although Moses saw and knew this before all; yet let him be kept for the last place for confirmation; so that, just as he is the prince of the prophets, so he may close the disputation. In the person of Christ, these are the words of Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; he has sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach a year of acceptance to the captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up." And Job says: "The Spirit of the Lord made me, and the breath of the Almighty gave me life." But what do you think about this Spirit? Whose Spirit is it that grants joy to the needy, heals those with crushed minds, and [heals those] enslaved by the devil?
A And for the salvation of the human race, is it not the adoration of the Holy Trinity that is sought? Elijah, after pouring water on the third heap, called down fire from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. Daniel, at the open doors of his house, prayed three times every day and received his petitions. And these things, indeed, were by no means without purpose, but pointed toward the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
Nevertheless, if you require cruder prophecies, as being cruder yourselves, come now, let us treat of the cruder things. Therefore, these are the words of Job: "God lives, who has taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who has brought my soul to bitterness: for as long as there is breath in me, and the Spirit of God, who made me." B Abraham, your progenitor, received three angels for a meal, to whom he attributed the name of the Lord equally, saying: "Lord, if I have found favor in your sight," and what follows. But that Abraham received God, and not [merely] angels, is evident not only from Sarah’s premonition of laughter; but God himself, after the meal, confirms to him that He is his God: "I will return to you at this time, and Sarah your wife shall have a son." And having led him out, He spoke to him thus: "Look up to heaven, and count the stars, if you can. And he said to him: So shall your seed be. Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." And he said to him: "I am the Lord, who brought you out from the Ur of the Chaldeans." C Here is the Holy Trinity for you. First, he says, "I am your God," and "from Sarah I will give you a son, whom I will bless. I will return to you at this time, and Sarah your wife shall have a son." Then, having led him outside, and since he could not attain the number of the stars, after promising him an abundant posterity, He adds: "Abraham believed God." And thirdly: "I am the Lord, who brought you out from the Ur of the Chaldeans," so that through this triad you might be taught about the triple person in the Godhead. See again the three persons in one nature, discoursing as one. For when Abraham accompanied the Holy Trinity, he received this saying from It: "The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has multiplied, and their sin has been aggravated exceedingly. I will go down and see whether they have completed their work according to the cry that comes to me; or if not, that I may know." D Now, the sentence of God commanding Moses is this: "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." He did not say: "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," but adds "and" as a connector, so that the Son and the Holy Spirit would not be left unindicated; but just as the connector displays Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as three men, so the triple usage in the Godhead declares three persons. "I am the God of Abraham," that is, the Father, "and the God of Isaac," that is, the Son begotten from Him, "and the God of Jacob," that is, the thrice-holy...
CAPUT X.
Similitudes showing the Holy Trinity.
And so on, likewise, if you please, I shall examine the voices of the prophets which signify the power of the Trinity of one nature. Indeed, the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, who progressed for a three-day journey, asking to work for God, that event, I say, seems to me to hint at the Trinity. And the three rods which the patriarch Jacob, having stripped off part of the bark, fixed in the water to water the sheep of Laban: just as even now our Savior Jesus has saved the sheep endowed with reason, that is, men enlightened by holy baptism, as God says through Ezekiel: "Behold, I myself will seek out my sheep, and I will visit them; and they shall know that I am the Lord their God." Moreover, the Ninevites achieved salvation through a fast of three days and three nights. This matter was not without purpose, but was a certain image of...
A the vivifying Spirit, proceeding from the Father (14) and resting in the Son. Furthermore, the heavenly hosts of Cherubim and Seraphim with unceasing voice, as Isaiah proclaims, cry out: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts," by repeating "Holy" three times noting the three persons; and by saying "Lord of hosts" once, denoting one Deity. For there is truly one Lord, and one Deity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
JUD. Through God, the architect of all things, these are the true voices of the prophets, and for that end they were put forth by them; our fathers, however, occupied in the bare letter, erred in vain.
CHRIST. But attend, O Moses, and relate through the Holy Spirit what God spoke with you in Numbers: "Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know, because they are elders of the people and magistrates; and lead them unto the door of the tabernacle of the covenant, and let them stand there with you, that I may come down and talk with you; and I will take of the Spirit that is upon you, and will give it unto them, that they may bear the burden of the people with you, and you yourself not be burdened alone." And Moses gathered seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom he made to stand about the tabernacle. And the Lord descended through the cloud, and spoke unto him, taking of the Spirit that was upon Moses, and giving it to the seventy men. And when the Spirit had rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease anymore. But there remained in the camp two men, of whom one was called Eldad, and the other Medad, upon whom the Spirit rested; for they also had been enrolled, and had not gone out to the tabernacle. And when they prophesied in the camp, a young man ran and told Moses, saying: "Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp." Immediately Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, and chosen from many, said: "My lord, Moses, forbid them." But he said: "Why do you envy for my sake? Who would grant that all the people might prophesy, and that the Lord would give them His Spirit?" Shame on those who believe this Spirit to be of another nature than the Lord. For if this is impossible in men, not to speak of individual animals, it is much more so in God. What are we doing? Do you believe? Would that you might wash away the dimness of the eyes of your mind with the water of truth, and see the only-begotten Son of God having descended from heaven for the sake of human salvation, incarnate by the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, and made man, and crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffering, and buried, and on the third day, according to the Scriptures, raised, returned to heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father, and to return magnificently one day to judge the living and the dead, with a kingdom that shall never end.
JUD. But if you preach the God of Moses as incarnate on earth and made man from the progeny of David and of a Virgin, in what way has He rejected us, the Jews, or rather the Synagogue, which B through Moses and the Law He claimed for Himself; and especially those from whose stock you maintain He assumed His body? For if He was made man to save the1 human race, much more did it befit us to be admitted than others, we from whose race the knowledge of God proceeded through our father Abraham; and then perhaps also foreigners, if He wished, to be adopted for the sake of His humanity. For this is what drives us, even first of all, not to confess this to be that same God of Moses.
CHRIST. It must be known, however, that the gifts of God are immutable; for since He is simple, He is also wont to bestow His benefits simply. And that this is true, one can form a conjecture from inanimate things and clearly see. For He has bestowed upon the heavens perennial motion, and upon the sun splendor, and upon the moon—not to go through each one—and to the sun light, not at all subject to change, and these have lasted unchanged for so many ages. Yet to the first-born parent and his posterity He gave the gift of the freedom of the will. On account of this, He was more propitious to the gifts of Abel, and despised Cain, according to the character of each. And from that time until now—lest I cause satiety by speaking (for satiety is the enemy of the ears)—He receives the evil evilly, and the good benignly, as the actions and deeds of each deserve. That which He testifies through the man of God, who rebuked the wickedness of the sons of Eli, with these words: "Whoever shall glorify me, I will glorify him; but they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed."
CHAPTER XI: Of Divine Providence.
What then? Was this common gift of humanity to be taken away because of you Jews, and neither rewards to be given to the good, nor punishments inflicted upon the evil?
JUD. Not at all.
CHRIST. But if you deem that so absurd, or even surely judge so, what other provision ought to have been applied by God the Creator, and was not applied? Did He not endure to dine with Abraham, who was in need of nothing? Did He not subsequently through Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs, reveal the incarnation of the only-begotten Son in various ways; just as Moses cries out in Genesis and Exodus, as if in an enigma? But then, because He knew that you were rather thick-headed, He applied even thicker solutions through the prophets. For what is clearer than these words of Jeremiah? "This is our God, and none other shall be esteemed against Him. He has found out all the way of discipline, and has delivered it to Jacob His child, and to Israel His beloved. After these things He was seen upon earth, and conversed with men." Or what is more appropriate than those of Isaiah? "Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and shall bring forth a son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel," as if you were to say: "God with us." And what other remains are clearer as proclamations of the prophets? Finally, the Savior Himself also, having arisen, said: "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Thus betrayed, and...
Holy Spirit." A This is what the Wisdom of Solomon also foretold: "Because I have called, and ye refused, ye have despised all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity, and I will mock when that which ye feared cometh upon you." Thus God has various ways in which He has striven to provide for your salvation; and for this reason, because you have refused, the nations shall condemn you; because they, with the help of the Jews—which God long ago, both in Genesis and in Exodus, as we have said, set forth obscurely, and after having accepted even more lucid oracles of the prophets—have admitted the light of righteousness: but you, for whose sake all these things were written, and for whom the prophets shed their own blood, you, I say, having rejected the sun, have chosen darkness instead of the perennial light; for the enlightening of whom even the only-begotten Son of God Himself, who is the light of eternal light, at last shed His own blood.
Jew. If you truly show us that Moses spoke of these things, both in Genesis and in Exodus, we will both agree with you and believe.
Christ. If your ancestors did not hear the cruder predictions of the prophets, who openly preached the Son of God—namely, the Mosaic writings, which reveal all things not openly but obscurely—they produce no faith in you.
CHAPTER XII. Why God at first concealed the mysteries of the faith from men.
Jew. And why, moreover, did He not reveal them more plainly?
Christ. At that time, as I was saying, it was unseasonable to divulge this. For if the prophet revealed nothing about the Cherubim and Seraphim and all the heavenly host, matters which he had clearly known himself, but wished first to raise us from visible things and those subject to the senses to the knowledge of God; how much more so concerning the perennial and timeless Trinity, or the incarnation of the Son? Which, though made manifest by the testimony of so many prophets, and furthermore exhibited and perfected, is hitherto denied by you. But, in fact, whatever I was saying He spoke more obscurely, He did for these two reasons: first, that He might manifest Himself as full of divine knowledge; and second, that those who were afterwards affected by the same Spirit might be raised from riddles to divine splendor. Therefore, it would be unfruitful to teach these things to you.
Jew. Indeed, we do request it; discourse to us on those things which are taken from Moses. For we acknowledge Moses as a prophet and prince under God, and he was the one who led those rescued from Egypt into the knowledge of God.
Christ. Let us therefore begin from the first man who loved God, that is, Abraham. Two were born to him, one from the bondwoman, the other from the freewoman. For the others are without name B and alien to blessedness. Isaac represented a double figure: the one was the order of birth; he referred to the people selected from the nations who would cling to Christ; but the manner of birth and his immolation prefigured the nativity and death of Christ the Lord; Ishmael, by contrast, expressed the type of the Jewish race: and that this is true, hear God commanding Osee: "Take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and have children of whoredoms; for the whole multitude of the Jews shall commit whoredom against the Lord, wherefore she is not my wife, and I am not her husband." By which words He also hinted that the priesthood was to be abrogated. For when (the Synagogue) had played the harlot, she was punished by the loss of the kingdom and priesthood after the advent of Christ, who is the true prince and ruler.
CHAPTER XIII. The defection of the Jewish race from God.
Therefore, if there is no priesthood for them—as certainly there is not—it is evident that they are playing the harlot. For those whose marriages are illegitimate, they commit adultery. But if now all commit fornication, and are born from adultery, all are illegitimate. "But he who is born of a harlot," says the law of Moses, "shall not enter into the church of the Lord." It is worth our while, then, to ask why the covenant of circumcision was struck by God in Ishmael, and not in Isaac? I affirm the reason was that circumcision was about to cease: and that this is true is apparent from these words of God to Abraham: "Thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore, and thy seed after thee in their generations." And again: "Every male in your generations shall be circumcised." But regarding Isaac, God does not make the pact in this way; but: "I shall establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant." Observe how He promises to Ishmael, who is thought to reflect the Synagogue, as being the firstborn, that He would confirm the covenant with his lasting posterity: but with Isaac, who represents the new people, He made an everlasting covenant. "The bondwoman seeing that she had conceived, despised her mistress"; the Synagogue, that is, having received the law, and being adorned with fine linen and purple, with a kingdom, I say, and at the same time with the priesthood, despised her mistress, and raised her hand against the majesty of God Almighty and His right hand; and she strove to flee from the countenance of the Lord while she labored to kill the prophets and to stone those sent to her. C D
CHAPTER XIV. Comparison of the Synagogue and the nations.
Yet the all-powerful God, punishing the Synagogue for her exiles (as one who had first fled of her own accord), finally, as a bondwoman who had been treated too harshly, propitiously commanded her through the prophets to return to her mistress, that is, to Jerusalem, and to submit to her hand; namely, to adore the One born in Bethlehem and to confess Christ the Savior and God. And when the returned Synagogue not only did not repent, but even mocked Isaac, or the newly…
A born Christ, covering Him with a purple cloak and placing a crown of thorns upon His head; the Lord then heard Christ crying to His Father: "Cast out the bondwoman," that is, the Synagogue, "from my house, that she may not burn incense to me; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman," since Jews and Gentiles alike shall possess the prepared kingdom. The former led Christ, as a criminal, to the cross; but the Gentiles, having seen the Crucified One along with the criminals, confessed Him as God.
CHAPTER XV. Of the sons and affairs of Abraham compared with God.
And these things were indeed accomplished in the type of the Synagogue, that is, in Ishmael; but these others in Isaac, the figure of the new people, first because he was born of a barren, worn-out woman of advanced age. For since it was not granted to man to be born of a Virgin (which privilege God reserved for Himself as a great thing, and dedicated as the most admirable and mysterious of mysteries), it was necessary that some type and shadow of this truth B be born to Abraham from an exhausted womb. Furthermore, the words that were spoken about the birth of Christ, and those that preceded concerning Isaac, are also similar. Therefore, there, God says: "Why did Sarah laugh? Is anything impossible for God?" Here, Gabriel says to the Virgin: "Because no word will be impossible with God." There: "I will surely return unto thee at this time; and Sarah, thy wife, shall have a son." Here: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee; and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee." C Note, indeed, how after the departure and hospitality of the Holy Trinity, the conception of Isaac followed. Once he was brought forth, Abraham no longer heard from God that a covenant was to be confirmed with him concerning Ishmael for the duration of his posterity; but that he would become the father of many nations, increased by a huge growth of offspring, and that an eternal covenant was to be struck with Isaac. You see the abrogation of the Synagogue and the perpetuation of the new people. But now let us turn our eyes also to the immolation of Abraham, and let us see Isaac bearing the image of the Lord’s passion. For just as Abraham D gave up the son born to him out of zeal for God, so also God, for the sake of His supreme humanity and benevolence, offered up for us the most beloved Son to death. There, God commands Abraham: "Take your only-begotten son, whom you love, Isaac." For you did not love him rashly, but he was loved by you because he was worthy of love. Here, my Creator Christ—who is Himself God in the assumed humanity and the same Father according to His divinity—testifies that His Son is His most beloved: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." I take no delight, He says, in the death of the Son, but however much I, co-eternal and equal in birth, and most dear to myself, in body for the salvation of men, willing to be sacrificed, I suffer. That, indeed, is worthy of investigation: why, after Abraham had performed sacrifices many times, did God not show him the place; yet in the immolation of Isaac He commanded: "Go into the land of vision, upon one of the mountains which I will show you"? I think the Lord showed him that very place in which my Lord was to be crucified. For the Palestinian soil lies near the borders of Jerusalem.
CHAPTER XVI. Why Abraham is commanded to sacrifice his son on the mountain.
Rising in the morning, Abraham saddles his ass. Abraham indeed the ass, but Judas convoked the assembly of the Jews, having employed two boys—two either as peoples or kings, Pilate and Herod (for Holy Scripture is accustomed to call the inexperienced "boys")—and Isaac as the son, having set out, he arrived on the third day at the place of which God had told him. For because Isaac was not to die, by the journey being made, he signified the resurrection after three days. Lifting up his eyes, Abraham perceiving the place from afar; and my Jesus dedicated His own punishment from all eternity; he commands the servants to wait there with the ass, while he and the boy go thither. Likewise, my Savior and God says to His own disciples: "Behold, the hour comes and now is come, that you shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone; and I am not alone, because the Father is with me." But as a prophet, Abraham there says: "After we have worshipped, we will return to you." Here, the Seer of souls: "After I have risen, I will go before you into Galilee." And thus indeed the Savior. Abraham, however, with the sacrificial wood placed upon his son Isaac (for sweet Jesus was about to carry His own cross); he himself was carrying the fire in his hand; for divinity accompanied the humanity; but he carried the sword: "Because one of the soldiers opened his side with a lance." And the two went on together; both natures in one person of Christ; and the divinity remained the fashioner of the body, interiorly unmoved and without affect; just as also Abraham, the parent of Isaac. But Isaac suggested to his parent: "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the victim for a burnt offering?" The Savior, likewise at the time of the passion: "My Father," He says, "if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
CHAPTER XVII. Isaac to be immolated is a type of the crucified Christ.
But both having proceeded; that is, the God-man Jesus, they arrived at the place, namely Golgotha. And there
A Abraham constructed an altar; just as here the lithostrotos [note: the stone-paved judgment seat] had been built out of stone; and having placed the wood upon it; for just so on Calvary the cross was fixed; Isaac, binding his son, that is, Christ, clothed in a body to cover his divinity; places him on the wood upon the altar; because on wood, O miracle! is suspended He, who was about to restore Adam, who had fallen through wood, and who had been saved in the wooden ark of Noah. Then he moves his hand with the iron, to immolate his son: for in accomplishing all these things, Abraham shows the decree and will of the unseen Father regarding the Only-begotten Son: "And behold an angel of the Lord called from heaven, saying: Abraham, Abraham. Who answered: Here I am." This angel converses with Abraham from heaven; in the Lord's passion, the Angel of Great Counsel called upon God and the Father: "Eli, Eli, lamma sabachthani? That is: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And the Angel to Abraham: "Do not extend your hand over the boy, nor do anything to him; now I know that you fear God." But he says: "Now I know," for his sake, you have already demonstrated to me: for the Lord was not ignorant: "And you did not spare your only-begotten son for my sake." Therefore, Abraham, by immolating his son, showed his observance toward God: but He, the Ancient of days, God, proved His love toward men by immolating His Only-begotten Son.
CHAPTER XVIII. What the ram with horns among the briers signifies.
Then Abraham, raising his eyes, looked behind him and saw a ram. Let this ram be understood as the one assumed by the Word. For concerning him, Isaiah thus declares: "As a sheep he shall be led to the slaughter." Stuck by its horns, that is, fixed to the cross, in the thicket of Sabech, which is remission, for among the Hebrews Sabech signifies remission: and Abraham, that is, the Only-begotten Son of God, having approached, seized the ram, that is, the assumed body, and offered it as a holocaust; he subjected it to the punishment, indeed, in place of the son, namely, the fallen Adam. And that these things are true, hear God speaking with Abraham: "By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not spared your only-begotten son for my sake: I will bless you, and I will multiply your seed." And after a few words: "In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." The meaning of which words is this: From your son's posterity, namely Isaac, who is a type of my Son, my Son, linked to me by nature, shall go forth, through whom all nations of the world shall be saved. That Abraham held the mystery of the dispensation B is evident from this, that they took wives of their own kindred. For he himself, having taken his kinswoman, also allowed Isaac to take one, and in a like manner Isaac [did] for Jacob; but by sending a servant, he sought a wife for him, Rebekah; for so also did God through Moses restore the Synagogue. Isaac privately sent Jacob, who bore the image of Christ, to his own kindred, that he might take to himself wives * [note: the text source here implies "with difficulty and labor"]. In like manner also the Father from all eternity sent his Only-begotten Son to his creature, that is, to men, that by thence assuming flesh, through his passion and the Lord's miracles, he might receive the two Churches as if in marriage.
CHAPTER XIX. A comparison of Jacob and Esau.
That this is so, hear God’s response to Rebekah: "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be divided from your belly," namely, one of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles; "and the people shall overcome the people, and the greater shall serve the lesser." He who boasts himself the older by birth shall serve the one born after; that is, the Jewish people shall serve the Church gathered from the Gentiles. And this the angel of God confirms to the high priest Eli in these words: "I will so cut off you and your paternal house. And I will raise up to me a faithful priest, who shall do according to my heart and my soul." Truly, he who does all things according to the genius and spirit of God, he is from God, and the Angel again: "And he shall walk before my Christ all the days," that is, even until the consummation, and likewise: "It shall be, that whoever remains in your house, escaping slaughter or captivity, may come to pray for him, and offer a silver coin, and say: Dismiss me, I beseech you, to one of the priestly parts, that I may eat a morsel of bread." This enigma of the angels to the priest is of this kind: A poor man, stripped of the soil of Judea, will come to the Church established from the Gentiles, seeking a silver coin: and he will say to a man of illustrious and priestly lineage: I do not seek the priesthood for myself, nor do I desire a kingdom, but that I may be cast into some priesthood, and not that I may serve as before, but that I might eat a minimal bread. And David, foretelling the same, says: "I have chosen to be an outcast in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners." By the house of God he denotes the Church from the Gentiles; by the tabernacles of the impious, the fame of the Jews. For truly, in the foreign Church, the Jewish name is cast out and infamous, naked, an exile, stripped of every kingdom and priesthood. And that these things are so, will be evident from those things which will be said later.
A And indeed, the figure of the former people is Esau; of the latter, Jacob. By no means, however, is it right to rush toward the destruction of nature because of an example: "After the time for giving birth had arrived (for let us reconsider the earlier things), he who came out first was red, and altogether hairy like a skin: and his name was called Esau." The countenance of Esau is full of anger and ferocity: for such also are the Israelites; and thus they killed the prophets of their own race, and finally they even admitted Christ himself. "Immediately another came out, holding the heel of his brother with his hand, and for this reason he called him Jacob," B by this fact signifying both that he would prevail over him, and that he would have him as a servant and minister; for heels are the chief instruments of labor, and the judges of service. Now Jacob was smooth: which is a sign of human gentleness; and such is the people recently instructed, meek, and without anger. For the gracefulness of the body has an argument for internal beauty, and that which is held by the mind. And Esau was skilled in hunting: for the Israelites delight in gore and bloodshed; Jacob was a quiet dweller of homes: such also are the new ones in the faith, companions, devoid of anger, and taught to love only piety. But Isaac indeed loved Esau, not as a good man, and one privy to the will of God, but as one studious of hunting. And that this might be understood to be so, the sacred Scriptures also add the cause: "for he was eating of his hunting," and Rebecca loved Jacob. For where is there a promise that is not deceitful, and true love follows. But that Esau was not loved by his father as a good man, there is no doubt; for he bartered away his birthright for a little bit of bread and a stew made from lentils. And thus, indeed, the Synagogue also fell away from adoption on account of the meager pleasure of ruling; having lost the father's happiness, which was seized by Jacob through the agency of his mother and the facility of his wits. And just as Rebecca [loved] Jacob, so also did the unbloody victim of my Christ reconcile and appease the new people to God and the Father. But since Esau has been rejected by God, and we have discussed him sufficiently thus far, let us proceed next to those things which pertain to Jacob alone. Although it is worth the effort first to observe how the father, having labored greatly and showing himself difficult, lamented grievously when blessing [him] for the sake of the paternal good omen. By this act, I think, Isaac teaches the most wicked Synagogue that, unless it returns to the God-man Jesus, whom it drove to the cross, and propitiates him through the laver of regeneration—just as Esau did his father with tears—it cannot attain the heavenly kingdom. But let us return the discourse again to the prophecy. "Therefore Jacob departed from Bersabee and went toward Haran. And when he had come to a certain place, and wished to rest in it after the setting of the sun." It was necessary for Jacob, who was being divinely instructed by signs which are held in the mind, to have the sensible sun set, so that he might foresee the darkness which he himself was also about to undergo in his bodily punishment. C D
CHAPTER XX. The affairs of Jacob compared with Christ.
"He took from the stones that were lying, and put them under his head." Jacob took the stone, because the people of foreign nations were about to flow to God through that august and cornerstone, that is, Christ. Therefore, he also, in an august manner, applied the stone to his head and "slept in that same place." For even if Jacob slept in body; yet the mind of Israel was in anxiety: "And he saw in a dream a ladder standing upon the earth, and its top touching heaven."CHAPTER XX. Jacob's ladder as a type of the Blessed Virgin, and the rest of Jacob's deeds.
Understand here for me the ladder as the Virgin, through whom we are lifted up from earth to heaven. "And also the angels of God ascending and descending upon it, and the Lord leaning upon the ladder." First Gabriel descended to her, to announce to the Lord, by that same most auspicious announcement, that a conception was to occur, and that God as man was about to come forth from her immediately. Then also the ministers and guardians of our salvation. For my Savior confirms in the Gospel: "You shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." Ascending to Him who, though He was God, was also made man, and sits at the right hand of the invisible Father; descending to men, for the sake of procuring their salvation. For Paul, the mouth of my Christ, also testified to this, whose words concerning the angels are these: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth into service for the sake of those who will receive the inheritance of salvation?" But let us return to the prophecy. And He addressed him thus: "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac." I. Who? Standing over the ladder. Fear not, specifically of Esau thy brother. Similarly, the Savior also admonished his disciples: "Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul." Which pertained to this, that He might remove the terror from those who had hope in Him; just as the blessed David also calls him happy who places his hope in Him. "The land, in which you are sleeping, I will give to you, and to your seed." God calls his lineage those begotten not only from him, but also foreigners. For as Esau, who was the son of Isaac, held no place in the happiness of the Synagogue, because he did not insist on the path of virtue and the knowledge of God; so those who, through the knowledge of God and virtue, even if they are from the nations, attach themselves to Christ, will be sons of Israel. Since the derivation of Israel is "the mind seeing God." Therefore, those who have a purified mind, for receiving divine splendor, are deservedly both sons of Israel, and are so named. And the rest of the sacred Scripture easily confirmed this our opinion:A “And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall be spread abroad to the West and to the East, and to the North, and to the South.” See how the sacred Scriptures embrace the four parts of the world, while Judea is some small and minimal segment of the earth? Therefore, the prophet, illuminating this more clearly, adds: “And in you, and in your seed, all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed,” that is, by the Jesus Christ God who has arisen. But if you try to overturn this, there will be no happiness or communion between you and the nations, but discord and dissension. For thus far you are despised and invisible among all nations. “And I will be your guardian, wherever you may go.” Wherefore, being certain that this economy is to be fulfilled in your lineage from eternity, travel your whole journey securely. “And I will lead you back into this land,” that is, I will restore you to the ancient nobility of Adam. “And I will not abandon you until I have fulfilled all things which I have spoken.” He says that happiness will not fail your lineage, provided that from it—that is, from the Virgin—I have assumed a sort of mixture of body.
But if anyone wishes to understand this more pressingly, let him question Jacob himself. Tell me, blessed Israel, what are those things which the kind Lord Sabaoth promises He will do? “The scepter shall not be taken from Judah, nor the leader from his thigh, until He comes who is to be sent, and He shall be the expectation of the nations.” Have you heard the voice of the prophet speaking in agreement with our words? For that which has been established signifies the mystery conceived before the ages. And when B Jacob had awakened from his sleep, that is, having grasped in his memory all the knowledge of those things which God had said: He said: “Truly the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he intimates the understanding somewhat obscurely, and confesses the impotence of understanding; and trembling: “How terrible,” he says, “is this place!” Truly indeed, most blessed Israel. For the descent of God to mortals is exceedingly terrible. There is nothing else here, that is, from the ladder, that is, from the Virgin Mary, C made flesh, “but the house of God,” which is an inseparable union, “and this is the gate of heaven.” This ladder, the Virgin and at once the Mother of God, is the gate of heaven. For through her will descend, like rain upon a fleece, the only-begotten Son of God. And you know how the one who had seen this and held it explored, how early rising Jacob anointed with oil the stone which he had beheld, and made a vow: that if the Lord, leaning upon the ladder, had prospered his journey, He would be his God; and this stone, which contained the figure of His unpolluted body, would be the house of God. Moreover, that he would give tithes to Him: by which reason he was instructing the Synagogue, that she might pay tithes of all the things bestowed at home; and he was signifying the spiritual and new people, who would consecrate the tithes of their whole age and life. And so, successful in his journey by God, and led unharmed to Laban. He saw (for let us again treat the words of Moses) “a well in the field,” that is, in the body, a fountain of immortal life. “Two flocks of sheep also resting beside it,” D of the Jews and of the foreign nations. For thus Christ calls them: “I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and mine know me. As the Father knows me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep.” Observe diligently. For they were watered from that well, just as Christ says in the Gospel: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” The sheep there were irrational; these are rational. “And its mouth was closed with a great stone.” That stone of the Savior Christ’s monument designates the rock. To the same place all the flocks were driven, namely the prophets and apostles; and with the stone rolled away they watered the sheep, that is, by explaining the sacred Scriptures they watered the people with heavenly wine. And again they rolled the stone to the mouth of the well. This stone of the well, which is the stone of the monument of immortal life, the two gathered pontiffs, Annas and Caiaphas, with a guard, rolled to the mouth of the monument. And Jacob spoke to the two shepherds. There, indeed, Jacob spoke to two shepherds, here our Savior and God, as another Jacob, to the two pontiffs. Behold, He says, the day is still long; it is a long period for repentance; nor is it the time for gathering the flock, but that time of my second coming, when I shall separate the sheep from the goats. Water the sheep, teach the knowledge of God through acts of repentance, and go to pasture; that is, depart into eternal tabernacles. To whom they say, We cannot. The same answer the pontiffs gave to the Shepherd of the sheep. We cannot, we who have killed God, return to fruitfulness and repentance; unless, with all the flocks gathered, namely of the nations, the stone is removed from the mouth of the well, the covering of the sacred Scripture, as it were, removed from the Law; and thus we shall water the flocks. For, as Isaiah is the author: “When the fullness of the nations has entered, then all Israel shall be saved.”
Still, while He was speaking with them, that is, rightly chastising the Synagogue of the Jews: “And behold Rachel was coming with her father's sheep,” namely the Church of the nations. Here Jacob, Christ, having caught sight of the Church of the nations, Laban’s niece, that is, taken from the kindred of the Synagogue. For into the new Church are co-opted some from the race of Esau, others from Ishmael, others born from Nahor, others from Lot, and likewise from the sons of Keturah; who are the kindred of the Synagogue, since they were all born of the stock of Abraham. And Jacob having gone out, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ having been raised from the dead, with the stone rolled away from the mouth of the well, that is, from the doors of the monument, and having removed what was in the law, greasy and intricate, He watered the sheep that were kindred to His mother the Synagogue, as we have already said, with the fountain of immortality and life; as He says in the Gospel: “He who shall drink of the water that I shall give him, shall not thirst forever: but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into life eternal.” And such indeed is my love, Jesus. But Jacob kissed Rachel; likewise, the Only-Begotten of God has embraced the new Church.
A Furthermore, Joseph labored under the envy of his brothers, just as Christ did later among the Jews; for that beloved John writes in the Gospel: "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." They, on account of the many-colored tunic made for him by his father, and his dreams, hated their brother; the Jews, on account of a certain mental purple as it were, which had already been woven for Him by the kindness of the heavenly Father from the virginal womb, like a variegated dye, and ultimately also on account of His brilliant miracles, persecuted Christ. The former, envying their brother, asked: "Shalt thou be our king? or shall we be subject to thy dominion?" The Jews, however, surrounded Emmanuel in Solomon's porch, and said to Him: "How long dost thou hold our soul in suspense? If thou art the Christ, tell us plainly." They, beholding their brother sent to them by their father, boasted among themselves: "Behold the dreamer comes; come, let us kill him, and let us cast him into the old cistern."
What the two wives of Jacob signify.
But lest I seem prolix in recounting every detail, and to bring the matter to a close: Jacob, by fourteen years of service, took two wives, the former Leah, the latter Rachel; of whom the one represented the Synagogue, the other the Church of Christ. It must be known, however, that the former was accepted by Jacob by the desire and love of the latter. For Rachel, because she was beautiful, was loved by Jacob, just as the Church of the Gentiles is loved by Christ. And that this is true, the Sacred Scriptures themselves bear witness, saying: "But Leah was blear-eyed," just as the Synagogue was powerless to look upon the divine splendor; "Rachel was fair of face and beautiful in appearance." As the Church of the Gentiles, enriched with the knowledge of God and with virtue. And again: "Jacob therefore served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days for the greatness of his love." And a little later: "He preferred the love of the one who followed to the former." Thus also did Christ love the Church of the Gentiles more than the Synagogue. For he had indeed betrothed the latter to Himself, but through a mediator, Moses, just as Jacob did Leah; but with the love of Rachel, Christ, like Jacob with Rachel, joined mouth to mouth: just as God opened this sentiment through the prophet: "And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them." And these things are sufficient for the present regarding Jacob: for we shall make mention of him both in his descent into Egypt and in his adoration of Pharaoh.I therefore, as it must be observed in the first place, that Israel, in producing the twelve Patriarchs, instituted the Synagogue from those born of Leah: but by the concubines, he signified foreign women, whom he permitted to be reckoned to his race; by those born of Rachel, he denoted the examples of Christ and of the traitor Judas; in Joseph, that of Christ; in Benjamin, that of the traitor Judas.
On Joseph as an allegory attributed to Christ.
Therefore, let us omit the ten in this place, and speak of Joseph and Benjamin. Nor is this to be passed over by us, why Rachel, fleeing from her father, stole his idols. Certainly not that she might keep them secretly, but that she might destroy them. Might it not be that she said, since she contained the example of the Church of Christ, that she would be giving the idols to destruction, having abandoned also the ancestral worship of idols? For just as Rachel did not hold what was tracked down by Jacob; so also with another Jacob, my Savior Christ having risen, the Church of the Gentiles gave its ancestral impiety to ignominy and destruction. And just as Christ does not admit those from the Gentiles with idols, so neither does He the Synagogue with Jewish victims and circumcision. And these things are thus.B Seeing the worker of their salvation sent by the invisible Father, [the Jews] say: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance." They meditated defense before the father, these before Pilate: the former confirming he was devoured by a wild beast; the later saying: "We found this man perverting our nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ a king." There, Reuben exhorted: "Do not kill his soul, nor shed his blood, but cast him into this cistern," so that he might rescue him from their hands. Here, Pilate, so that he might rescue Christ from the hands of the Jews, denies: "I find no cause of death in him; I will chastise him, therefore, and let him go." There, the brothers obeyed Reuben; here, the Jews, as the most bloodthirsty of all, refute the words of Pilate. But there, Reuben, because of his prayer, is not truly innocent of fraternal betrayal; nor is this Pilate free from the crime of the Lord's murder.
But lest, through brevity of speech, I propose the argument of Joseph less clearly, consider the prophetic words themselves produced into the midst: "Immediately therefore, as he came to his brothers, they stripped him of his tunic." They save the torn tunic for the father; they divide the garments taken from Christ. And receiving him, they cast him into the cistern; they shove the one they have seized into a pit, these deposit the dead one in a monument. And the cistern was empty, which had no water. Just as there the pit had no water, so neither here did the monument have the power of death. And "they sitting down to eat bread"; they, with him thrust into the pit, sit down to take food; the Jews, after the Lord's murder, keep the Pasch. For thus the Evangelist has it: "And they themselves went not into the hall, that they might not be defiled, but that they might eat the Pasch." Mark carefully the mind of Scripture. With eyes lifted, they take notice. For after the bread had been taken by Judas, the Lord entered into him.
Satanas, as John teaches in the Gospel. And behold, the Ishmaelite travelers came from Gilead. For, just as with Christ, it was fitting that the buyers of Joseph from the circumcision should be among them.
CAPUT XXIV. The camel in Scripture signifies hatred.
Their camels were laden with spices, and resin, and stacte. By naming the camels, he denotes the bodies of Annas and Caiaphas, clothed in priestly stoles. Now, the genus of camels is very tenacious of injury. Thus, the figure also signified hatred toward the truth. Those who were going to bring it into Egypt—just as those circumcised ones—applied their efforts to send the God-man Jesus down to the underworld. Therefore, Judas said to his brothers: "What gain is there for us if we kill our brother and hide his blood? It is better that he be sold to the Ishmaelites, and our hands not be polluted: for he is our brother and our flesh." It was fitting then, too, that the sale be done by Judas, since even now the sale of the Savior was done through Judas the traitor. But he, wishing to deliver his brother, suggested the sale to them; for of two evils, he chose the lesser; but Iscariot, who breathed the slaughter of the Master, and could not perfect it, sells him to the priests. And my Savior even pointing this out to Pilate says: "Therefore he who delivered me to you has the greater sin." Oh, the audacity of the traitor and the humanity of the Master!
Therefore, his brothers, having pulled and drawn Joseph from the cistern, sell him to the Ishmaelites to be led away to Egypt. They did it thus. The Jews delivered Jesus to Pilate, and, lifted up on the cross, they consigned him to death. They having received twenty pieces of gold from them, the traitor receives thirty pieces of silver. Reuben having returned to the cistern, did not find the lad. This signifies the Savior's resurrection from the dead. For as Reuben did not find Joseph there, so neither did Peter find Christ in the tomb. But they took Joseph's tunic, and dyed it in the blood of a goat which they had killed. They, having received the goat, soak the tunic in blood; this goat and tunic must be understood as the assumption of the Word: by killing which, the Jews stained his body with blood. For the words of Jeremiah from the person of Christ are these: "And I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; and I did not know that they devised plans against me." See how he marks the figure of his assumption everywhere as a sheep. And they present the multicolored tunic, having been sent, to his father. For God and Father received the tunic of the unique Son bloody. And they signify to him: "We have found this; see whether it is your son's tunic, or not." In the same way, the Jews also said concerning Christ: "He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he desires him."
CHAPTER XXV. Envy, a cruel beast.
AObserve the figures: "When he recognized it, he said: It is my son's tunic; a very evil beast has devoured him." Indeed, envy is truly a most savage beast, and much more so. For beasts consume only the bodies of men; but this, along with their bodies, destroys their souls as well. And this envy made not only the sons of Jacob sellers of their brother, but the Jews also into slayers of God. "And having torn his vestments, he was clothed in sackcloth, mourning his son for a long time." And here one may see that the celestial God and Father was affected by this injury and slaughter of Christ with no small grief. But with all his children gathered together, that they might soothe the grief of the father: "From all memory," the Scripture signifies that both those dear to God and dear to him B "he refused to receive consolation," for the Jews offended so gravely that he rejects the plea, however much one may induce his mind to pray for them. Which God testifies through the prophet in these words: "If Moses and Samuel should stand before me, my soul is not toward this people," nor will I hear them, asking for peace for them, as before. So that I may pass over the things in between, since they led Joseph into Egypt.
CAPUT XXVI. Joseph raised to the highest honors in Egypt.
There, all you who are learned in the law know, the master of the horse of Pharaoh arrived, and having found the man right-hand of all his family, he was made prefect by Potiphar of all his household; the mistress, however, having observed that he was handsome, loved him; but as he refused to commit wickedness with her, having seized his garment, so that he might appear as a transgressor, she betrayed him to her husband. Thus, indeed, did the Synagogue first love Christ, by far the most beautiful among men; when it also arranged him as a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, and confirmed him as without mother in heaven, without father on earth. But because he did not wish to do what pleased the Synagogue, and was incessantly reproving and chastising it, as the Wisdom of Solomon says: "We are esteemed by him as trifles, and he abstains from our ways, as from uncleanness"; then, indeed, it delivered him to Pilate, to be stripped of his garments, believing that it was offering a sacrifice to God. C There the Egyptian woman to Potiphar: "You have led in a Hebrew servant, that he might mock me." Here the Synagogue to Pilate: "He reproaches us with the sins of the law, and slanders against us the sins of our discipline." There Potiphar cast the arrested Joseph into prison, in which place the king's captives were held: here Pilate sent down to the underworld the soul of my captive Lord; where in darkness the shades of the holy ones had long been held. There the master of the guard committed the prison into the hands of Joseph, nor did he know anything of those things that were inside under him.
A
B With these things thus performed, it happened that two eunuchs sinned, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and the baker, against their lord, that is to say, the people of the Gentiles and the people of the Jews. For the former was of the Gentiles, who, having become an idolater, fell away from God, while the latter instituted the Jewish people through the sacrifice of Abraham. "And both saw a dream in one night," that is, they contemplated the death of God. But there, the resolution comes from Joseph; here, from God. Therefore Joseph rightly says: "Is not the interpretation of God?" But it is better to narrate those dreams, which indeed have examples of future things, word for word. Then the head cupbearer narrated "his dream to Joseph," bearing the figure of the Gentiles: "I saw a vine before me." Understand by the vine here the sweet Jesus; for so He says in the Gospel: "I am the vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away; and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit." Contrary to me, that is, the Gentiles were opposed and impiously disposed toward Christ. "And in the vine were three branches," and it was budding; for after three days the resurrection of Christ shone forth. It brought forth the flower, the apostles and martyrs, from whence the clusters of grapes were ripening, blushing with the blood of the martyrs. "And the cup of Pharaoh was in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them into the cup which I held, and I delivered the cup to Pha- C raoh." This denotes the unbloody sacrifice of the new Church. "Joseph answered: This is the interpretation of the dream: The three branches are yet three days: after which Pharaoh will remember thy ministry, and will restore thee to thy former degree: and thou shalt give him the cup according to thy office, as before thou wast wont to do." And these indeed are the words of Joseph to the cupbearer. But my Savior and God receives [the task] for the Gentiles, that He would from that point, three days after the resurrection, command His disciples and apostles, that those who have received the grace should baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: and that He would grant to them the kingdom and the priesthood, the mystery of whose economy was to be accomplished in bread and wine, which Melchizedek, who was from the Gentiles, represented through a figure to Abraham; and He promised that He would do this for the people converted from the Gentiles, because they, seeing Christ reckoned among the guilty, nevertheless confessed Him to be God. "Only remember me when it shall be well with thee." Mayest thou, from the benefit received from me, have an indelible memory of the burial and resurrection. And do thou with me D mercy; use my aid for the kindness of brothers, that is, by performing miracles of healing, "that thou mayest suggest [it] to Pharaoh." Note carefully the mind of Scripture. The former [passage] pertains to dignity; the latter to the endurance of martyrdom. For what he says is of this kind. Being led to princes and kings, [be] mindful of my words: "Settle it in your hearts not to meditate before how you shall answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist." Thus far the Savior. [He says this] so that He may bring me out of this prison.
CHAPTER XXVII.
How great is the power of calumny.
There, Joseph contends with the master of the cupbearers that he might lead him out of prison; here, the gentle Jesus [tends] to the people taken from the Gentiles, that He might vindicate Himself from the calumnies of the Jews: for truly calumny is a great stronghold of wickedness. For if it has dared to attack even my Christ, who indeed would easily despise it? And that this is true, hear the things that follow: "For I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews," that is, betrayed to Pilate by the calumny of the Jews. What this is, the evangelist explains: "This man said: I am able to destroy the temple of God, and after three days to rebuild it." Therefore, seeing the impudence of calumny, marvel at the excellence of their wickedness. Nor did I do anything here—any evil, that is—for which they should cast me into this pit: there they cast Joseph into a pit, here they cast Jesus into a monument.
But now it is time to recount the dream of the master of the bakers, who is held to be a pattern of the Jewish people. Therefore the master of the bakers [said]: "I also saw a dream: That [I had] three baskets of meal." The three baskets signify the three qualities which are considered the three grave sins of the Israelites: the worship of idols, the slaughter of the prophets, and the killing of Christ. "I had upon my head," that is, I was bearing their wicked deeds. "And in one basket, which was higher than the others [that was] the supreme wickedness, I was carrying all the meats, which are made by the art of the baker." These designate the crowd collected from all sorts of men among them, as if for the work of royal power. "And the birds did eat out of it." For Jerusalem was cut off because of the crime of the murdered Christ and the grave offenses of the Jews. "Joseph answered: This is the interpretation of the dream." Behold the dream and its interpretation: "The three baskets are yet three days." Three days from now, that is, since Christ's resurrection; "after which Pharaoh will take thy head from thee." There Pharaoh [beheaded] the master of the bakers; here Christ, who is Prince and Ruler, strikes off the head of the Jews.
and will utterly destroy thee, A and the birds shall tear thy flesh." [This refers] to the captivity of the Israelites, as we said before. And that these things are true, hear Christ speaking to the women of Jerusalem amidst his very torments: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children; for behold, the days are coming in which they shall say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck: for if they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" Since they delivered me, the innocent one, to death, he says, what will they not do, given over to every kind of wickedness? B "After this was the third birthday of Pharaoh, who, making a great feast for his children, remembered amidst the banquet the master of the cupbearers and the prince of the bakers. And he restored one to his place, that he might hand him a cup: the other he hung on a gallows." And these things, indeed, king Pharaoh marked for himself on his birthday among his own. But the King of kings, returned from the dead, together with the saints who were resurrected with Him, made mention of the master of the firstfruits, that is, of the new people; namely, from what precipice of impiety he had arrived at what height of the knowledge of God; and in turn, from what height of adoption [the Jewish people] had plunged themselves into what abyss of the slaughter of Christ. By which things the new people, as I have just said, He adorned and saved, and permitted the Jewish [people] to be given over to ignominy and destruction. And if any one says that [both] did not happen at the same time and together: so be it; but from that day both are known and holy.
CHAPTER XXVIII. The history of Moses explained mystically.
C But these things concerning Joseph are sufficient, and now let us proceed to the center of the prophets, the mediator, and the one known and acknowledged by God, Moses. Although it must not be ignored that Joseph's arrival in Egypt signifies the second presence. For just as he revealed himself to his brothers, so too will the Jews eventually acknowledge Christ; as this utterance of the prophet Zechariah conveys: "And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced." And just as Joseph fed them with all his family when they were led by repentance and were coming to him from Canaan; so too, as many as are of the Jewish name throughout this whole world, if they repent and confess Christ as the true Son of God, He will feed them with the celestial and immortal bread, as is testified in the Gospel: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. He who eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has D eternal life," and shall not come into judgment, but I will resurrect him on the last day. The resurrection here does not signify that of the dead, by which all are to be resurrected, but the departure of Adam.
But it is time, having taken up the Mosaical interpretation and the reins of the sacred Scriptures, and having [guided them] as if on a course toward their goal, to proceed like a driver with all one's might. Therefore, let us first set forth the significance of each thing regarding Moses and Egypt, and Pharaoh, and his leaders who were to drive the chariot. For indeed it must be held that Moses bears the likeness and type of my Christ and Savior God, Egypt [the likeness] of Darkness, Pharaoh [that of] the devil—who, because he is instructed in his mind, is as it were a kind of Pharaoh, not indeed according to royal dignity, but through the frustration of pride—and his leaders [the likeness of] the angels and works. Now behold the figures. For just as Moses fled from Pharaoh, so Christ withdrew from Egypt into Judea, confirming this by the word of Hosea: "Out of Egypt have I called my son." He entered unto the Midianites, beside a well B where he sat: Jesus, wearied from his journey, sat beside a fountain. There the Midianite high priest had seven daughters, who tended his sheep; here [the Church], gathered from mortals of various kinds and languages, is fed by the seven gifts of the Spirit to God and Father, having put off hereditary impiety. There the daughters of Raguel encounter Moses; here those born from the nations encounter Christ, the first of whom was present from Samaria. There shepherds coming up drove them away; here the high priests and shepherds of the Synagogue persecuted those from outside. There Moses arose, defeated the shepherds, and both drew water for them and gave the flock to drink. Here Christ rising from the dead drove away the wicked and false shepherds, and watered those who had faith in Him with living water, that is, with His divine and celestial preaching; adding: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." Those daughters of Raguel, having returned to their father, commend the diligence of Moses; the Samaritan woman, having returned to the Natal [place], proclaims the magnitude of my Savior. Raguel asks of the daughters, "Where is he?" that they might summon the man so that he might take food. Here is the heavenly bread: "I have food," he says, "to eat, which you know not." Moses dwelt there with the man, and he betrothed to him his daughter Sephora: the mind of the Savior, dwelling in Samaria and enlightening it, betroths the beautiful Church of the nations: for Sephora signifies to the Jews a beauty, or an enlightenment. Now, indeed, observe the two sons of Moses, who are drawn to the two covenants, of whom the law is esteemed by the name of Gersam [Gershom], who indeed had been a the stranger; for the Israelites had not yet invaded the promised land; but Gersam is the same to the Jews as a stranger. Furthermore, Eliezer is a figure of the new covenant of Christ the Lord; for in entering into this covenant, God assisted the lands and delivered them from fraud. For Eliezer to the Jews is the same as if you said "pitulator" [helper].
But it is better to recount even the prophecy of Exodus word for word. "After much time indeed." What length of time does the prophet signify? Of the transgression...
mortalis. A “The sons of Israel groaned,” that is, B the shades of the dead in the underworld, captives, “and for their works they cried out; and their cry ascended to God.” Elsewhere it says: “Bring my soul out of prison”; elsewhere: “God, show thy face, and we shall be saved”; elsewhere: “Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice”; elsewhere: “Let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my prayer.” The complaints of all these reached God. “And he remembered the covenant which he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” In that place with Abraham, here with primeval Adam. “And the Lord looked upon the sons of Israel, and knew them”; that is, since he became man to be clothed in our mixture, to purify like with like. “But Moses was pasturing the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian”; in that place Moses tended the irrational sheep of his father-in-law the priest; here Christ, another Moses, tended the rational sheep of the eternal Father. And when he had driven the flock into the inner part of the desert, he came to Horeb, the mount of God; for the shepherd of the rational flock and God, having led the sheep away from the wilderness of impiety, drove them to the mount, which is the knowledge of God, and to the heavenly and eternal Jerusalem. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was burning and was not consumed; this signifies the indivisible and unchangeable union of the divine Word with human nature, which was assumed out of charity. For as fire embraced the bush, so also God the Word entered into association with the nature subject to the sin of Adam, being without sin, that he might compare us also, who are unconquered by sin, to the other Adam, the prince of our recreation, and of that which is prior, of creation. “Moses said therefore: I will go and see this great vision, why the bush is not burned.” Rightly was Moses astonished, who, seeing that this portents was a figure of the mystery about to occur, clearly demonstrated that the divine nature of the Word was to be coupled with the human mode, if indeed he willed it: for all power to perform things belongs to him.
C And the Lord, seeing that he went to look, called him from the midst of the bush, and said. In that place, the Lord appeared in the likeness of an angel and called to Moses; here, having spoken to the Virgin through Gabriel, God immigrated into her. “Moses, Moses”; he repeats the name, that he might listen more attentively to what was being said. “What is it?” he says. “Do not approach,” says the Lord, “hither: loose thy sandal from off thy feet.” Let no one with impure feet contend to run toward the Gospel of peace, or, shod in sandals—in bloodless skins, I say, by which are noted the agitated, and vicious, and foul thoughts, the authors of death—investigate the secret of the Virgin. “For the place where thou standest is holy ground.” For my consecrated royal palace D remains. And he says: “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” What he says here is of this kind: I, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, whom I appeared to in the past, will in time dwell in the womb of the Virgin, by the kindness of my eternal Father, and by the aid of the thrice-holy Spirit. And Moses hid his face: for he did not dare to look upon God. He was struck with stupor at the descent and incarnation of the divine Word to men, and wondered. “To whom the Lord said: I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of the hardness of those who oversee the works.” I have seen, he says, the shades of the holy ones vexed in the underworld, by the hostile and wicked demons who urge them to evil works (whom he also calls taskmasters by name); for in truth, when we depart from God through ignorance, we then wallow in the mire of sin and are subject to the taskmasters. But by the grace of God, one attains the knowledge of freedom. “And I have descended to deliver them from the hands of the Egyptians.” Conscious of the vain striving of men toward things sacrificed to idols, I descended, in no way separated from the Father, to snatch the world from the demons. “And I will lead them out of that land,”—of contumacy and mortality—“into a good land,”—namely, of immortality and the knowledge of God—“which flows with milk and honey.” Out of that land flow milk and honey: out of the Lordly body flow water and blood. For the union of the fire with the bush signifies this; through the heat, the passible and mortal body; through the safety from the heat, the Deity, which, though unconquered, was destined to be for a long time dwelt in among mortals. “The cry therefore of the sons of Israel has come to me.” In that place, the imploration of the Israelites was received; here, that of all born of Adam, and the violence having been perceived by which they are pressed by the Egyptians; not only after, but even before the imploration (for I search the hearts) I knew the violence of the demons. “But come, and I will send thee to Pharaoh.” This shows the kindness of the Father. “That thou mayest lead out my people, the sons of Israel.” In that place the Israelites; here the whole assembly of men from the chains of Hades. For Hades, having tasted an innocent and life-giving body, released even those it held as just captives. “And Moses said to God: Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and lead out the sons of Israel from Egypt?” This the prophet said as if in the person of the body coupled with the divinity with him. And he: “But I will descend with thee, and will again ascend.” Understand this, said in turn by God to the body coupled with the divinity. For God descended into the underworld with his soul; and what God had assumed, he led up with him, not only from Hades to earth, but also from earth into heaven, surrounded by all the heavenly hosts. And lest we make the sweetness of the discourse thankless by the length of our words, come, let us note the whole history of Moses in summary, and as it were with a finger. Therefore, Moses departed into Egypt; the sweet
Jesus to the underworld. He rose up against Pharaoh, and the divine body of my Savior tore asunder the underworld. But as to the fact that Moses went with his brother Aaron to Pharaoh, it overturns the impiety of the heretics (22) who affirm that in the body of my Christ, the divinity served the place of the soul; and thus teaching wrongly, that He was not a perfect man. For just as God spoke there to Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron; so too my Savior and God, with an intelligent soul, as a mediator placed between the divinity and the coarseness of the body, became the mediator of God and men. There, Moses and Aaron, saying they were sent to Pharaoh by the Lord, God of the Hebrews, hear this from him: "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?" Likewise also in Hades, with the heavenly host crying out: B "Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, you eternal gates, and the King of glory shall enter;" the intelligible Pharaoh replies: "Who is this King of glory?" And here (in Christ and the devil) something more must be considered than in Moses and Pharaoh. For there, Moses having once performed ten miracles, once overwhelmed the sensible Pharaoh with the waters; but my Savior and God not only triumphed over the intelligible Pharaoh, but also grants power against him daily to those who believe in Him, which is to be noted diligently. For as Moses and Aaron pressing Pharaoh there, that he might let the people go for a three days' journey to worship the Lord their God; he neither let them go, and even withdrew the straw (76). Thus, when a man, who is a certain constitution composed of soul and body, pressed the intelligible Pharaoh, that he might allow himself to worship the Holy Divinity with concordant zeal, apart from offense and rot- C ten thoughts; that most wicked one did not allow the man to attain to perfection to such a degree, that he would strip him even of a small virtue, as if it were straw. Therefore, to each student of Christ, power has been given by God to inflict ten plagues upon this intelligible Pharaoh.
Observe these things, then, and draw up the comparison on both sides. Just as there, when Pharaoh was hardened, Moses rendered the water turned into blood (77), not at all useful to the Egyptians; so here, the student of Christ, entirely washed in the water of the divine font, renders the leaders and guards of the underworld and of the intelligible Pharaoh impotent, lest the vices of pleasure from the blood innate to the body derive toward them. And just as there the sensible Pharaoh persisted in his impiety, here the intelligible Pharaoh persists in malice, as he then brought forth frogs from the soil of Egypt (78); so now the student of Christ, having removed agitated and harmful thoughts from his soul, strives to suffocate the intelligible Pharaoh with their stench. Indeed, in the souls of which men these thoughts adhere, in them also the stench of them remains, as David bears witness: "They have grown foul and corrupt are my scars, because of my foolishness" (79). But if the same mind should repel wicked thoughts from itself by divine grace, the pestilential stench redounds to the intelligible Pharaoh, as the same Mother of God/Parent of God [i.e., the Psalmist, the 'Deiparens' of the Psalter] again testifies: D "In the morning I destroyed all the sinners of the land" (80). Where "morning" is the day of the splendor of the sun, which illuminates the mind; and "sinners of the land" are the demons and their leader, Pharaoh. But the sower of lies being even more irritated by this plague, the Christian employs a third torment against him; for as there he is scourged by Moses with lice, so here that wicked and execrable Pharaoh is scourged by the pious with prayers, and just as there the land and air, filled with lice, brought a great plague upon the leaders of Egypt; so when all things are filled with the prayers of pious men, by these that thrice-wicked one, along with the leaders of the underworld, is surrounded in the middle and tormented. Since these prayers are nimble, they wander through all things as if with wings.
And since he is not softened even by these, he arms against him the charity of God as if it were a dog-fly [cynomyia]. But it is better to set out the sensible plague first, so that we may establish the truth from the image (81). The dog-fly is a very small animal, but one that brings an intolerable burden to a dog; for when it has slipped on, it makes the animal plainly restless, and forces the unwilling creature to run, and seriously to turn itself upon its own tail with its bite, at times even to rub itself constantly against the grass fallen to the ground, enduring in no way the crowd and commerce of the fly: likewise, he also deploys the weapons of charity more against the intelligible Pharaoh. And if a creeping animal refuses the commerce of the fly; how much more does the devil, the architect of hatred, [refuse] the power of charity? For he can in no way bear it, who is as it were envy by nature, and a hater of men, to keep us—who are below—above, he himself having fallen from on high, and having become darkness instead of light. But punished by these evils, he was so far from being shamed into quiet, that he became even more harsh. Therefore, there a slaughter of quadrupeds took place (82); here, by fasting, the bestial and brute vices of the soul are prostrated. For there are vices which are both checked and cured by reason, and conversely, those foreign to reason and incurable, just as the wisdom of Solomon declares in these words: "For it happens that a thief, when caught, is stolen from, in order to sate his hungry soul: but he who is an adulterer, on account of the lack of his heart, will lose his own soul" (83). And as there after the plague of the dog-fly, the slaughter of all quadrupeds followed; so here after fasting, the destruction of bestial and brute vices; which indeed are exterminated by no remedy more present than fasting from the soul.
A Yet even by this deed the wicked Pharaoh did not repent. Wherefore, just as there, boils that were searing burned (tormenting the sorcerers), here an inward fire burns the impious; and a zeal surpassing all flame rises up against the intelligible Pharaoh; according to the philosopher who says: "Exercise wrath only against the serpent." But now, as there, with the sensible Pharaoh breaking the promises he had given, hail with fire existed; so here too, with the intelligible Pharaoh raging against one who had been cast off by the pious, perennial sparks of divine fire exist in the soul, and a constant shower of tears flows and springs forth from the eyes. For just as the pupils of sensible eyes grow dim, not bearing the acrimony of smoke, and therefore weep; so the intelligible eyes of the mind, bitten by the acrimony of sin, attest to their interior concern and amendment by the shedding of tears. B And while both remained hardened, there was need of further plagues to bring them to fruit, so that those who, having been treated with benefits, did not show themselves grateful, might be punished more; and, being punished, might recognize the divine power from the things which they suffered. Therefore, when even afflicted they did not recognize it, the calamity of the locust was added, which would consume whatever was green in all Egypt. And Moses indeed called forth the locust; but the pious man destroys all the grace of his body through the hardship of every life. For as there the greenery was food for the locusts, so here the beauty of the body is for brutal passions. And in the meantime, with Pharaoh again being obstinate, Egypt was ravaged by other plagues as well, and with the light withdrawn, tangible darkness was brought in. But here the pious man, who fears the exterior darkness, dilutes the blear-eyedness of sins from his soul with the water of the knowledge of God; and he receives the pure rays of the Prince and everlasting Light. But as for both, when they tergiversated, they had to be terrified by plagues—that one finally extreme in order, but which in its pain and violence was easily the first, that is, the death of the firstborn—which follows. And just as there this last plague compelled Pharaoh to send away the people to worship God far off, and separately from the rites of the demons and from corpses; so here too, the final plague compelled the intelligible Pharaoh to permit the pious man instantly to venerate the Holy Trinity, far removed from agitated and harmful thoughts. And just as the death of the firstborn softened and bent him who was obstinate toward all the plagues; so the submission of the soul breaks and weakens this one, with all his firstborn vice, that is, arrogance and pride, extinguished. But with his mind changed, when he was pursuing the people dismissed by him, God, with Moses as mediator, led the Israelites by night with fire and by day with a cloud. In the same manner, with the wicked demon pursuing the pious man who had fled from him, though to no avail and deceitfully, our Savior and God, through His divinity and C His body, instructs the whole world from the darkness of ignorance to the light of the knowledge of God. And there, the people, having crossed the Red Sea and escaped from Egypt and its prince Pharao, shaking off their pride, exerted themselves to invade the promised land for men; here, the world, freed by the Dominical blood and water from the dire and persistent sin, and from the Pharaoh—that bitter and invisible tyrant—together with his bitter taskmasters, acts liberally toward our Lord God, as if by a way of return to adorn the heavenly world, not, however, with the leaven of wickedness and malice, but with sincerity and purity, as with certain unleavened loaves, exporting nothing of the Egyptian and impious mass. Then Pharao, having dared to pursue, was destroyed with all his army: in the same way, while the intelligible Pharaoh dared to rise up against my Savior, the heads of the intelligible dragons were crushed through the holy dipping. For that great Paul declares this toward this opinion: "I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea." For just as Moses was forbidden to lead the people into the promised land because of a certain slight murmur (do you think, he says, "can we bring forth water for you out of this rock?"), but wished them to explore and know it through deputies; so Adam, not supported by the commandment of God, by embracing the counsel of the serpent, lost immortal life. Therefore, there Joshua, son of Nun, led the Israelites into the promised land safe; here the Son of the eternal and unoriginated Father, my beloved Jesus, having assumed the temperament of Adam, has led those believing in Him into the heavenly and perennial Jerusalem. You have seen the figures of old, now behold the true reality. D
CHAPTER XXIX. Why the Son of God was made man.
JUD. You have opened the oracles of the prophet of God with a sublime sense and in a friendly and agreeing manner, and you have truly taught the ancient shadows and figures of things to come. But what is the necessity, or for what grace do you say the Son of God was made man? CHRIST. But if you will explain why God created the heavenly hosts and Adam, you will easily and clearly understand the incarnation of the Only-Begotten. JUD. We have learned from our wise men that God created the creation of the universe through goodness alone; for in the Psalms of David are these words: "According to your mercy remember me." And again: "Sweet and righteous is the Lord, therefore will he give a law to sinners in the way." CHRIST. But if God created man out of goodness, as certainly He did, how much more was it fitting to preserve the created work safe and sound, and not to permit that it be overwhelmed by corruption? And for this, the Savior himself...speaking to you, says: "My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." For A to fashion the work is far greater and more illustrious than to be fashioned. Nor, in truth, is it the same thing for God to fashion man, as it is, finally, for man to become God. And this we have understood to be so in the case of our princes; for one of our primates says that it is more excellent to have been made God than to assume a lower station, that the former is more divine, and, if it is judged rightly, more sublime. For after the envy of the earthly devil, and through the fraud of the wife, not observing that he was called heavenly, he procured death instead of life, not only for himself, but also for the whole race; it was fitting, therefore, that the heavenly and immortal God should be born through the work of Gabriel from an uncontaminated and undefiled woman; just as, from a man without a woman, a woman was fashioned, so from a woman without a man, God the man should come forth, that the inventor of sin, having thought himself invincible, might be ensnared by the bait of the Divinity, having in turn assumed a body, by which, having attacked God, as he had Adam, he might perish. Thus, the emptied Godhead was joined with the assumed body, and in a strange tempering, God and man became one from both, and through one, both, with God mingled and bound to the body, so that he might combine those things which were discordant into one unity, through the commerce of a certain mediator.
CHAPTER XXX.
Cur Christus homo simul et Deus.Therefore, one from both for one progenitor, or, to speak more truly, having been made for all, He came into the earth, endowed with a soul on account of the soul that was a contemner of the commandment, bearing a body on account of the body that was the minister of the transgression, and at once condemned, higher and more sublime than sin; made of clay, on account of Adam brought under sin, with the old to be compared with the new, that is, humanity with divinity, and that He might recall him who had suffered, because by passion, and for each one of our own, by individual things in turn, to be rendered by Him who was offered for us, and by this kindly care on account of the contumacy of the fallen, by presenting a certain new mystery. Hence the birth and the Virgin, hence the manger and Bethlehem, birth for creation, or rather recreation, the Virgin for the woman, salvation [salve] for pain, Bethlehem for Eden, the manger for the orchard, Gabriel for the serpent, a tree for a tree, hands extended on the cross for the hand badly stretched out, gall for the sweet relish, a crown for degradation, the lance for the blade of paradise, ointments for tears, the linen cloth for fig leaves, nakedness for garments of skins, nails on account of ruin and lamentations, B raising up for the fall, a reed to break the power of the wicked, death for death, darkness for light, burial for the return to the earth, and finally resurrection for the resurrection of the fallen. And all these things God prepared for us to be healed, and as a remedy for our weakness, in order that He might lead back the old Adam, whence he had fallen, and move him to the tree of life, whom the tree of knowledge, unsuitably and not at its own time perceived, had driven from paradise.
Jude. But if God became man to cast down His devil, this would be rather to the detriment of the Godhead. For if as man He conquered the wicked demon, much more as God could He both conquer and consign to destruction: for there is no one stronger than God. Therefore Isaiah cries out: "The mighty God, the Father of the age to come, the Prince of the age to come."
Christ. You have rightly brought forward the words of Isaiah. But it is not so glorious for the power of God to have conquered the adversary, nor is it a source of shame for the demon to have been conquered by God, as it is a mark of the power of God, and a supreme disgrace for the wicked one, to have been conquered through the flesh, and for the earthly one to have become heavenly; and that he who through the hope of divinity had supplanted, should be supplanted in turn by perceiving Him who was deified through humanity. For just as bloodthirsty and wicked men, faithlessly fleeing this earthly kingdom, and enduring hunger in mountains and rocks, did not at all escape the king; but he, having sent his only-begotten, whom he had, with an oath and with liberal promises, recalls those to return to the fruit; whose words not only the son of the king did they not revere, but they even attacked him with bloody hands, the king being made certain, and inflamed with wrath, thinking them to have no excuse, destroyed them by sending his troops. In the same way, indeed, God and the Father of my Savior Christ, wishing to forgive the Jews every prophecy and sin, sent His only-begotten Son, a surety between Himself and them. By which zeal of His beneficence not only rejected, but also by them impiously nailed to the cross, having sent heavenly troops, as though they were devoid of all defense, with eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, He severely condemned them.
Wherefore, take up, I beseech you, a thrifty counsel: for you can repent while still surviving, and while living in the world, flee the darkness of error, and come together to the light of truth, and make an effort, so that you may cross over from a deteriorating state and the left hand of the goats to stand at the right hand of my Savior with the sheep.
Jude. In truth, that we also expect a great, effective prophet, anointed by God, that is true; but that the Son of God came down from heaven, we have heard [it said] by the prophets, nor that He has ascended into heaven again.
CHRIST. And so, as it appears, you say that the prophets did not prophesy concerning God, but only concerning a man?
JUD. That is so.
CHRIST. O stupidity! And who, indeed, in all of history sets before his servants a fellow-servant as king, and not rather the arrival and heralds of the son? But let us open the prophets again, and the truth shall teach you once more.
CHAPTER XXXI. Why Christ willed to be born of a Virgin.
JUD. Since you have learnedly proven to us a birth without time, or more truly above time, come, we shall love you; explain the descent of God from heaven to the Virgin, and let the prophets discourse upon it most clearly.
CHRIST. Hear Jeremiah, saying: "This is our God, and there shall none other be accounted in comparison of Him. He hath found out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved. After these things He was seen upon earth, and conversed with men." "This is our God." Who? He who exists from all eternity and endures into all eternity. "And there shall none other be accounted in comparison of Him." What other shall not be accounted? The one, clearly, who is expected by the Hebrews as the Son of God. "He hath found out all the way of knowledge." Not, indeed, the trade of a fuller or a craftsman, or whatever other futile things are of that sort; but the knowledge of realities, the way and ascent from earth to heaven, the supracelestial beauty, and the comprehension of God, and finally, illumination—in as much as each one had prepared himself for it, or rather, as the Craftsman had granted it. Therefore, this is that Craftsman who "hath given these things to Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved." Good, Jeremiah, in your words and prophecy! For He does not say, "In the last times He will appear on earth and will converse among men," but having contained future things explored within Himself, He forecasted things to come as though they were present. And of Wisdom this is written: "When they did not listen to my Son, I also will not hear them, saith the Lord Almighty."
JUD. It does not seem insolent to us that one anointed by the prophets is called Child and Son of God. For Isaiah also declares to us: "Ephraim is my firstbegotten."
CHRIST. Did I not say to you that the veil of the law is not judged by the letters, but by the understanding of the investigators and searchers? For as even then not all looked straight at the splendor of the face of Moses, but only those divinely chosen; so also, here, being captured by the eyes of the mind, they are blinded to the light of the Holy Scripture, as even you are at present. For the prophecy of Solomon does not clear away the rheum of your eyes to behold the truth, manifestly demonstrating the only-begotten Son of God who has become man without change; but because the Wisdom of Solomon declares, saying: "When they did not listen to my son, you strive to draw the honor of the Son of God to yourselves." Although, as Wisdom calls the Son the Son of God, likewise Isaiah (30) calls you children, when he says: "My firstbegotten is an Israelite"; but A He is the natural one, you are the adoptive ones. For we are the firstbegotten of the second Israel (Christ).
CHAPTER XXXII. A double nation, Gentile and Hebrew.
In which sentiment is well-known that declaration of God to Rebecca: "Two nations are in the womb; and the greater shall serve the lesser." And concerning Phares and Zara, the midwife says: "Why is the partition divided because of you?" But lest you appear here to be truth-tellers, let us bring into the midst the prophecy of Isaiah concerning you. For even if God confirms through the prophet: "My firstbegotten is a born Israelite," yet hear what follows a little before and after: "My people have done two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns"; and again: "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." For every natural son, as he may fail his father, certainly does not lose his nature. But an adopted one, who has entered into a nature as if by force, so long as he obeys the father is called a son; if he rejects him to whom he is added, he is not even called a son. In the same way, your ancestors, who forsook and rejected God, as Isaiah says, having been added to demons, are truly the children of Satan.
However, Jeremiah, after saying: "This is our God and He was seen on earth and conversed with men," adds: "This is the book of the commandments of God." Whose? The One he already spoke of: "And the law which is for eternity: all who hold it shall attain to life; but those who have forsaken it [shall attain] to death." See for yourselves the natural Son; for the prophet is not content to have said: "This is our God, and He was seen on earth and conversed with men," but has called Him also the book of God’s precepts, clearly, of God and the Father, and a law that endures forever, that is, perpetual, without succession, impatient of an end. He adds: "Those who hold it shall attain to life," to eternal [life], without a doubt. For those who serve the Eternal, will also reign together with Him eternally. "But those who have forsaken it, [shall attain] to death"; to death, indeed, not this bodily one that they will bring upon themselves (for no one among men is free from death), but that of the soul, which burns forever in extinguished fire and is never consumed. And if from the prophecy of Isaiah also, you understand...
what he thinks of the Only-Begotten, hear him proclaim openly: "A child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder." The meaning of these words is this: that Maker of the future and everlasting age, God, the Almighty, the Prince of peace and its guardian, the Only-Begotten of the eternal and beginningless Father, having put on flesh in the last times without change, is the Child born to us, the Son given to us: given as what he was—God; born as what he was not—man. "And the government is made upon his shoulder," that is to say, the cross, the sign of his victory and lordship.
Now these are the words of Micah: "And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, you are by no means least among the rulers of Judah: for out of you shall come forth a leader, who shall rule my people Israel, and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity." But if his origin is from eternal times, then he who is born is God, for no mere man has ever been heard of in all memory as having an origin from eternal times, but only God, who became man.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
The prophecy of Isaiah excellently explained.
A Again Isaiah writes: "There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall ascend from his root. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord: he shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor shall he reprove according to the hearing of the ears: but he shall judge the poor in justice, and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the spirit of his lips he shall slay the wicked. And justice shall be the girdle of his loins, and faith the cincture of his reins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them. The calf and the bear shall feed: their young ones shall rest together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the infant shall play B by the hole of the asp: and the weaned child shall thrust his hand into the den of the basilisk. They shall not hurt, nor shall they kill in all my holy mountain: for the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the covering waters of the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who stands for an ensign of the people, him the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulchre shall be glorious." What is this root of Jesse? The Virgin, sprung from an exhausted womb. And who is the flower? God, who was incarnate from the Virgin without change. But why does he not say: "A fruit shall come forth from the root," but "A flower shall ascend from his root"? Because of the great integrity of the Virgin, who had experienced no man. For to dissolve barrenness usually represents the power of God: but that a Virgin should conceive without having come together with a man is beyond C the law of nature. "He shall rest upon him," that is, upon the flower of the root, and the one born of the Virgin. For like joins to like. By the seven Spirits, understand the seven gifts of the Spirit.
He adds, furthermore: "He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor shall he reprove according to the hearing of the ears"; for men judge not according to what is fair and verified truth, but according to what is seemingly fair and true. Perceiving this, David prays: "Judge me, O Lord, according to my justice," not according to the ineffable and immense sea of your justice. And that this is true is declared by what follows in the prophet's words: "But he shall judge the poor in justice," that is, he shall crown the humble in spirit for their D demonstrated justice; just as David also confesses this: "And he shall save the humble in spirit, and shall justly correct the illustrious of the earth." By these "illustrious of the earth" are to be thought the demons and their ministers; for rightly are those who are the princes of the world also the illustrious of the earth, of whom David also says: "I will reprove you, and set before your face."
What he adds, "He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth," denotes the destruction of demons. For as David writes concerning the making of the heavens: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the spirit of his mouth," so also Isaiah, prophesying the destruction and ruin of the demons, predicts that he will strike the earth with the utterances of his mouth. He calls the Only-Begotten Son "the Word of his mouth." "And with the spirit of his lips he shall slay the wicked"; here again the demons and their ministers are to be understood, whom he called "the illustrious" a little before. And my Christ's clear miracles upon the raging ones lend faith to this our speech. "And justice shall be the girdle of his loins, and faith the cincture of his reins"; by saying "loins" and "flanks," he implies the whole structure of the body, and that my Christ is justice and faith itself; which David, foreseeing, also says: "Your justice is justice for ever, and your law is truth."
What he adds: "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf, and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together: the calf and the bear shall feed. Their young ones shall rest together." He denotes an agreement and conspiracy in piety from all memory. And just as Daniel designates ten kingdoms through ten horns, so also Isaiah, through these animals, designates the variety and diversity of foreigners. "And a little child shall lead them"; that is, the foreigners, and that child Christ, who was born to us and given to us, whose first of those he led to his adoration were the Magi. "And the lion shall eat straw like the ox," because of the union of the divinity with the humanity made in one and the same hypostasis. And you would not incongruously apply this to the Roman empire, because of a certain leonine and regal quality, which first [was brought] under the light and divine yoke, that is,
A having subjected its neck to the evangelical proclamation, after the rest of the peoples had been devoured like chaff. And the infant shall play over the hole of the asp. Christ is the infant and nursing babe; the asps and the offspring of asps are to be understood as the Pharisees and Scribes; the cavern and lair of the Jews is the Synagogue, whom the sweet Jesus taught while presiding in the temple and gesturing with His hand. They shall not hurt, nor shall they kill, in all my holy mountain. Again, he notes the ignorance of the Synagogue: for they not only did not kill the only-begotten Son of God when He was nailed to the cross, but He also restored to life those whom they had previously consigned to death. For the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord. For after Jesus, God-man, was sent to the underworld, then indeed the evangelical proclamation was B more widely spread, like water covering the sea. And what sea is covered by waters? The vast expanse of the worship of idols, and that which is inherent in the Law as something shadowy and imperfect. In that day the root of Jesse, which stands as a signal for the nations, the nations shall hope in Him. The meaning is this: He who shall rise from the dead on the day after the Sabbath shall be of the Jessean stock, and in Him not those from the Synagogue, but those from the nations shall place their hope. And His tomb shall be glorious, or: His rest shall be honor. Behold openly the kingdom of God; for our King will not have horses, arms, cavalry, and guards in whom to find rest, but divine honor. To which pertains what the Savior said to your ancestors: He who does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father; and: If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.
CHAPTER XXXIV. The oracles of other prophets concerning Christ.
But now, I think, with the words of Isaiah set forth, let us also set forth the sentiments of other prophets. Thus, David confirms concerning Jerusalem: A man, and man is born in it: and the Most High Himself has founded it. The sense is as follows: The Supreme One who founded this Jerusalem is Himself the very one who was born man in it. And Isaiah: Behold a virgin shall conceive, and shall bring forth a son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel. Moreover, Emmanuel is rendered from Hebrew into Latin as God with us. The same says again: I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said to me: Call his name, Hasten to take away spoils: make speed to plunder. And Moses in the book of Numbers: A man shall rise from the seed of Israel, and He shall rule over many nations, and His kingdom shall be exalted. Nations shall devour his enemies, and shall break their bones, and shall pierce with arrows his enemy. This enemy is to be understood as the devil, C and the missiles as the stigmata and marks of Christ, and the same again in the same place: A star shall rise from Jacob, and a man shall rise from Israel, and shall strike the princes of Moab, and the things that follow.
Furthermore, Isaiah proves that Christ is truly God with these words: Not any of the angels, nor of men, but He Himself, the Lord, saved us; and the same again: Behold my servant, I will take him: my elect: I have given my Spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the nations; he shall not contend, nor cry out. He shall not crush the bruised reed, and he shall not extinguish the smoking flax. He shall not be sorrowful, nor turbulent, until he puts judgment in the earth, and in his name the nations shall hope. The same concerning John the Baptist: You shall see the King with glory; and: The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight the paths of your God. Every valley shall be filled; and every mountain and hill shall be leveled. I consider the mountain and hill here to be the hosts of demons, which, having been cast down from heaven because of pride, were depressed to the lowest parts of the earth; the valley is human nature, which, having been depressed by pride, was again filled with the glory of God, and was lifted up from the earth to the heavens: for this is signified by what he adds: Wrong things shall be into straight [ways], and the rough into plain ways, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. And the prophet Amos says: In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen: and I will rebuild the gaps of its walls, and I will restore those things that had fallen: and I will rebuild it as in the days of old, that the remaining men may seek the Lord, and all the nations upon whom my name has been invoked. And the Lord says, doing these things: Whom, indeed, have the remaining men sought as God, and whose God's name have the nations been and are they called by, if not plainly the only-begotten Son of God, the God-man Jesus Christ? Just as Jeremias cries out: He is man, and who shall know him? Because He is also God. And David in the person of Christ: I will confess to you, O Lord my God, and I will glorify your name; that is, I will magnify and I will preach; Because your mercy is great over me; not according to the equality of my divinity, but according to the glory of my body. For my Jesus is perfect God; He was also made perfect man, one from two natures, of which that which was incarnate deified [humanity], while that which was fleshly was deified (31).
D And you delivered my soul from the lower hell. For until Christ's descent into hell, the soul of no man was liberated from the lower world. But if Jonas cried out: You shall lead my soul out of corruption, yet his soul, after his exit, descended again to the underworld: O God! The unjust have risen up
A against me »; [namely] the chief priests and the elders; « and the Synagogue of the 1 powerful have sought my soul »: Herod at the same time and Pilate, who were wielding power wickedly at that time; « and they have not set Thee before them »: [that is] for You, Father, and Your precepts having been delivered into the depth of oblivion, they truly despised You. « And Thou, Lord my God »; « Lord and founder of every invisible creature. And my God, look upon me and have mercy on me »; look upon me according to [my] humanity, Who, by My divinity, are never absent. « Give Thy power to Thy servant 32 », that is to say, demonstrate My power [which is] from You, [Who was] begotten before Lucifer: just as that [saying] of the Lord also [is], at the time of His passion 33: « Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee: as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh 31 ». — « And save the Son of Thy handmaid »: [that is] of the irreproachable Virgin. « Work with me a sign for good; » [that is] raise up from death the body [which was] assumed by Me. « That they who hate me may see, and be confounded; » for indeed there will be great shame for the most wicked Synagogue, [by] my resurrection after three days. « For Thou, Lord, hast helped me, and comforted me 34 », that is to say, because Thou, Father, hadst already long ago conceived [a] plan concerning Me.
CHAPTER XXXV. Prophecies of the prophets concerning Christ, God and man.
B But that Christ is perfect God and man, the prophets will demonstrate clearly. For Isaiah’s words are these: « The great and strong God shall not hunger 35 ». Truly David’s sentiment is this: « Hear, O my people, and I will speak: Israel, and I will testify to thee: I am God thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices: but thy burnt-offerings are always in my sight. I will not take calves out of thy house: nor he-goats out of thy flocks. I have known all the fowls of the air: and the beauty of the field is mine. If I should be hungry, I will not tell thee. For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Shall I eat the flesh of bullocks, or shall I drink the blood of goats? 36 » Why then is God fed neither by bull-flesh nor does He drink goat’s blood? How therefore do we reconcile the words of the prophets? Since Isaiah says: « The great and strong God shall not hunger 37 »; [and] David truly: « If I should be hungry, I will not tell thee. Shall I eat the flesh of bullocks, or shall I drink the blood of goats? » Indeed, it must be understood thus: that Isaiah, who looked to the divine, and eternal, and everlasting nature of Christ, and as if discoursing with the devil, who tempting Christ ordered [Him] to make the stones into bread, was speaking as if [Christ were] answering, saying that the great and strong God does not hunger C [as a man does]? Which [is the] answer [that] the evil one received also from the Savior: « It is written: Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God 38 ». But David truly, who foresaw long ago the incarnation of Christ, and just how the Jews were accustomed [to deal] with Him, as with a mere man, and not also [as with] God, and were casting reproaches: « Behold a man hungry and a drinker of wine 39 »; [he was] blocking the impudent mouth of those [men] long before, to confirm from the person of Christ: Why do you think of Me only as a man, and not also as God? I, the same One born from the Virgin, God without mutation, hungry and eating, do not need your help, O Jews, when the world is Mine, and whatever is contained therein. Nor indeed do I desire your filthiness, that is, your wicked sacrifices, most wicked Synagogue. But if you wish at all to enter into life, leave behind the shadow of the law, having heard My counsels and commandments, and approaching God [say]: « Offer the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows to the Most High. And call upon me in the day of trouble; D I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me 40 ». And Jeremiah: « Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and man shall teach no more his neighbor, and man his brother, saying: Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least of them even to the greatest 41 ». Likewise concerning the faith of the nations, Isaiah: « The Lord of hosts shall do for all peoples: on this mountain they shall put on gladness, they shall be drenched with ointment, they shall drink wine 42 »; where joy is referred to baptism; and [that] wherewith the baptized is anointed, to the holy ointment; wine to the uncontaminated and Dominical blood. The same again: « This decree is upon all nations; and they shall say in that day: Behold our God, in whom we have hoped, let us exult in our salvation, and the Lord himself shall save us 43 ». But this is the sentiment: Behold that God of ours, in whom we have hope, is with us, this is, according to the body, subject to the same things as we. Therefore let us exult in our salvation, the glory of our God; for the Lord’s glory, namely the cross, is our salvation. And the Lord Himself will save us, all sins having been affixed to the cross. And that it is so, the words to the God-bearer show. « And they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us 44 ». Now David’s [saying] also concerning Christ, from the person of God and the Father, this has been spoken: « I will place his hand in the sea; and his right hand in the floods 45 ».
JUD. This psalm contains no prophecy concerning Christ; for the prophet sang it concerning himself. CHRIST. Whether David sang the psalm concerning himself, you will understand more accurately from these things which follow: « He shall invoke me: Thou art my Father; » and yet in none of the psalms did David call God his Father: « My God, and the upholder of my salvation 46 ».
A Observe, then: the Father according to nature, God according to the assumed human nature. « And I will make him my firstborn 47; » note, that he speaks of the only-begotten Son of God. For neither was David the son of God, nor the firstborn of his own father Jesse, as he himself testifies in these words: « I was the smallest among my brethren, and the younger in my father's house 48 ». And otherwise, if this prophecy of David had been about himself, he would surely have said: « I have set 49 » him [as] firstborn, not « I will set him ». « Higher than the kings of the earth 50. » But David held only Judea, and his hand was not placed upon the sea, nor his right hand upon the rivers 51. « I will keep my mercy for him forever: and my covenant shall be faithful to him 52. » But to David, the covenant remained faithful only up to a point, since his son Solomon held the scepter of Judea with difficulty, and Rehoboam indeed fell from the kingdom of Solomon. « And I will set his seed for ever and ever; and his throne as the days of heaven 53. » Do you see the Son? For the meaning is of this sort: It pleases my only-begotten Son to assume flesh from the ever-Virgin Mary, who is of the seed of David; and he who is perfect God by nature, without change, will also be born perfect man: whose throne I shall preserve to the age of heaven, into all the perpetuity of ages. And that it is so, will be clearer from what follows; for he adds: « But if his children forsake my law: and walk not in my judgments; if they profane my justices, and keep not my commandments: I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with stripes 54. » He who probes hearts and minds, not being ignorant, appended the particle "if" here, not demonstrating the equity of his judgment, but with the addition, he threatened punishment: « But my mercy I will not take away from him: nor will I hurt in my truth. Neither will I profane my covenant: and the things that proceed from my lips I will not make void 55. » These things signify: However much you do not see the seed of David sitting on a royal throne and reigning over you; yet I shall raise up from his seed a King higher than all the earth. « Once in my holy place, » that is, in my natural Son. « If I lie to David, » I have sworn, he says, not to lie to David: « His seed shall remain for ever. And his throne as the sun before me, and as the moon perfect for ever, and a faithful witness in heaven 56. » See how the prophet predicts everything concerning the God-man Jesus. For in what way could a mere man, without divinity, endure forever, and his throne stand before God, like the sun and like the moon, for ever? But truly this is he, of whom he predicts from the person of God: « From the womb before Lucifer B I begat thee 57. » And again: « The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand 58. » For this is truly an indelible witness in the ether. Now indeed Isaiah writes: « Behold the days will come, saith the Lord: and I will raise up to David a just sprout: and a King shall reign, and shall be wise: and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. And this is the name which they shall call him, Iosedek, our just Lord 59. » And Habacuc: « His glory covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise 60. » Whose, therefore, but a mere man's majesty would cover the heavens, and with whose praise would the earth be filled? Surely, the God-man Jesus. And in Chronicles, God confirms concerning his Son: « I will settle his kingdom: he shall build me a house, and I will fix his throne even for ever. I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son, and my mercy I will not take away from him 61. » And again: « He shall be to me for a Son, and I shall be to him for a Father, and I will fix his throne in Israel for ever 62. »
JUD. And why then did he not say, I will settle the throne of my Son, because I am his Father; but, « He shall be to me for a Son, and I will be to him for a Father »?
CHRIST. The Father did not speak this concerning the perennial nature and kingdom of his Son; but concerning the temporal and assumed [kingdom]. For his perennial kingdom does not collapse, nor did his unshakable throne have need of being established. Wherefore he discourses about the kingdom and throne of our sort of David, and signifies the new Church that is to be built; for the heavenly house and perennial kingdom consist from all eternity, and into all perpetuity, never to be shaken. C Isaiah also, from the person of Christ, says: « I the Lord speaking justice, announcing right things. Assemble yourselves, and come, and draw near together, ye that are saved of the gentiles. I am God, and there is no other just God and Saviour besides me. Turn to me, and you shall be saved 63. » And Moses, from the same person: « Let my doctrine be expected as the rain; let my speech flow as the dew 64. » Now the words of God and the Father through Isaiah to the Son are these: « In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee: and I have given thee to be a covenant of the people, that thou mightest raise up the earth 65. » And through the same again: « I have given him for a leader and a commander to the gentiles. Behold the gentiles that have not known thee, and the peoples that have not known thee shall call upon thee 66. » Again Isaiah says: « Behold the Lord comes. » How? « He who walks in justices, and speaks truth, and hates iniquity and injustice, and shakes his hands from all bribe, who stops his ears, that he may not hear the blood 67. » See how the prophet demonstrates the incarnation. For not from these words of David: « The eyes of the Lord upon the just, D and his ears unto their prayers; but the countenance of the Lord [is against them that do evil 68]. »
66]. » and these things of Isaiah are to be interpreted, for he describes in part the kindness, in part the avenging power of God; while here, as he speaks of the hand, he refrains from allowing it to take gifts, and stops the ears A so that they may not hear an unjust questioning of the head, and he sets forth his incarnation 67.
And that this is true, you will understand from those things that were discussed afterward. For he adds: « He closes his eyes, that he may not see evil 68; » by these words noting the death of the Lord and the obstinacy of the Jews. « He shall dwell in the heights, his strength is the loftiness of rocks 69. » Accept this as the incarnation: for if this was not said concerning it, where else can one understand it to be, He who is present everywhere and fills all things? « Bread is given to him, » that is, he shall feed on bread for the faith of the incarnation, « and his waters are faithful 70; » that is to say, holy baptism, or saving doctrine. Just as Christ himself discusses with the Samaritan woman: « If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink, you perhaps would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water 70, » so that you would not thirst forever. And again: « He that believes in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water 71, » the words of divine and saving doctrine. « You shall see the King with glory, » that is, man with divine glory 72. And Hosea: « After this the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king: and they shall fear the Lord, and his goodness in the last of the days 73; » which things the prophet disputes concerning the God-man Jesus, partly calling him Lord God because of his divinity, partly David because of his humanity, as though born from the seed of David. For where is the kindness of David finally, in those last times, and not only kindness, but that which brings even men to amazement? And Jeremiah, concerning the children who were killed for his sake: « Thus says the Lord: Let your voice cease from weeping, and your eyes from tears: for there is a reward for your work 74. » Which the same says also of any penitent. The same again: « A man of David shall not perish, who may sit upon the throne of the house of Israel 75. » Therefore if Christ has not come, the prophet is a liar. For you have fallen, O Jews, first indeed by the grace of God and his providence, and then from the Jerusalem throne. But God forbid, the immortal God! that I should call the prophet of God a liar. But since you reigned until Christ, and held the kingdom and the priesthood, coming is Christ, who according to humanity traced his descent from David, the Son consubstantial and coeternal with the Father, who receives the empire of the Israelites and of the entire world. Which David also confirms, in these words: « O Lord, in your strength the King shall be glad, and upon your salvation he shall exult exceedingly. You have given him the desire of his heart: and with the will of his lips you have not B defrauded him 76. » You see that he speaks concerning Christ; for if you perhaps attribute it to Hezekiah, it is nevertheless correctly referred to Christ. For who else obtained a propitious Deity due to the desires of his soul and the requests of his prayer? And that this is true, the same Prophet demonstrates in another psalm: « Bless, O my soul, the Lord, who satisfies your desire with good things 77. » But if this was not granted to David, what other king will boast of it? Indeed, after he had said: « O Lord, in your strength the King shall be glad, » and the rest which he foretells in that poem, indicating more openly of which king he had published the prophecy, he says: « He asked life of you: and you gave him length of days for ever, and for ever and ever 78. » And truly no king other than Christ lives and reigns eternally. And these things indeed are of the prophets. Nor have we ourselves until now set forth the incarnation of the Son of God and the Word; for it is not lawful to do so further. For as you cannot measure the sea with a cup, which is watered by many and great rivers (even if not even so does the example achieve the exact truth), so too, and that [mystery] according to its dignity, to discuss and to investigate even moderately, is inaccessible to the human mind.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Another passage of Isaiah concerning the Messiah explained.But because Moses sealed for us the procession of the most holy and life-giving Spirit before other prophets, Isaiah truly approaches, who may seal the incarnation of the Only-begotten. Therefore, the most illustrious proclaimer of the prophets asked what God had spoken to Ahaz: « And the Lord spoke yet again to Ahaz, saying: Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, either unto the depth of hell, or unto the height above. And Ahaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord. And Isaiah said: Hear ye therefore, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to be grievous to men, because you are grievous to God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and shall bring forth a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel. He shall eat butter and honey. Before he knows or prefers evil, he will choose the good 79. » And the Lord said to me: Take thee a great new book, and write in it with the stylus of a man: Quickly take away the spoils, make haste to plunder 80. » For he is present: « And I took unto me faithful witnesses, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Berechiah: and I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said to me: Call his name, Make speed to take away the spoils: Hasten to plunder. For before the boy knows to call his father or his mother, he shall take the strength of Damascus, and the spoils of Samaria before the king of the Assyrians. God is with us 81. » « Know, ye nations, and be vanquished, and hear, all ye lands afar off: for God is with us. »
A Be strengthened and be vanquished: for if you are strengthened again; you shall be vanquished again; make a counsel, and it shall be dissipated; speak the word, and it shall not come to pass: for God is with us.
However, in the first place, it is a matter worthy of inquiry why the prophet says: « And the Lord added to speak unto Achaz, saying. » For the prophet, being about to speak of God and His coming, lest anyone should suspect that He was one who had been proclaimed by the previous prophets, and another who was then being proclaimed by himself, willed to prefix the word « And added, » as if to say: Among other prophetic predictions, which the Holy Spirit proclaimed through the tongues of the prophets concerning the Only-Begotten Son of God, He further added: « The Lord added to speak unto Achaz: Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God either in the depth of the inferno, or in the height above. » Nor does God indeed command Achaz, who was hesitant, to ask for a sign. Far from it. For how could He command one to ask for a sign, who even when commanded refused? But, certainly, as one who is omniscient, God, foreseeing the incredulity of the Synagogue, commands Achaz to ask for a sign. Just as at one time the obstinacy of Thomas drew the others to the explored faith of Christ’s resurrection and confirmed them, so indeed did the command to Achaz to ask for a sign lead everyone to the belief of the truth and establish it. And if indeed Achaz refused, and answered: « I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord, » Isaiah nevertheless exclaims for his sake: « Hear now, O house of David. » Behold to whom the promise pertains; he calls them the « house of David, » as if recalling to memory David’s words and the faith which God swore to David that He would not revoke. For: « The Lord swore the truth to David, and He will not frustrate it. » Do you seek to understand what that truth is? « Of the fruit of thy womb I will set upon thy throne. If thy children will keep My covenant, and these My testimonies which I will teach them, and their children even unto the age, they shall sit upon thy throne. For the Lord hath chosen Sion, He hath chosen it for His habitation. This is My rest for ever and ever: here will I dwell, for I have chosen it. I will bless her widow with blessing, and I will satisfy her poor with bread. Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints shall rejoice with joy. There will I bring forth a horn for David; I have prepared a lamp for My Christ. B His enemies I will clothe with confusion, but upon himself shall My sanctification flourish. » Noting the end of this promise, therefore, Isaiah makes mention of the house of David.
What he adds: « Is it a small thing for you, because you are troublesome to men? Because you are troublesome to my God also? » The prophet, praising this faith of Achaz, says: « Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel. » And having said, « The Lord Himself shall give you a sign, » he added: « Behold, a Virgin, » having brought forth a virgin daughter. Thus, this is not merely a sign, but the most wondrous of all miracles, and by far the most hidden and marvelous of mysteries and prodigies. « He shall eat butter and honey. » From miracle to miracle he proceeds, for having prefaced it: « The great and mighty God shall not be weary, » he now, comprehending the incarnation of the Only-Begotten, says: He whom I predicted would not hunger, due to His supratemporal nature, now, born a man from a virgin, without sin, will eat butter and honey by a marvel. By naming butter and honey, he again recalls to our mind the prophecies of David: one of this kind: « Thou hast anointed my head with oil »; the other: « How sweet are thy words unto my throat, above honey to my mouth! » But hearing: « Before he knows, or prefers evil, he chokes [chooses] the good, » imagine not that he was without experience of sin, or that he would ever admit evil: but that before that happens, by choosing the good as one born of a Virgin, he would be holy; for « Every male opening the womb, shall be called holy to the Lord. » Therefore, since he was consecrated from the womb, who could eventually know or admit evil? Wherefore, there is no doubt that he who would be born would indeed be a perfect man, but he designated him as alien to sin; for concerning him C he confirms again: « He hath not done iniquity, neither was deceit found in his mouth: and he was reputed with the wicked, » though he was innocent. Wherefore, if bad things come from evil, but God is good, and the giver of good things to men, He, being the author of all good, rightly imparted His own humanity to the goodness of His Divinity.
« And the Lord said to me, » that is, He demonstrated: « Take thee a new, great book. » By this volume, let the womb of the Virgin be understood. For just as God inscribed the Decalogue on the tablets handed to Moses with divinely engraved letters, so also in the virgo-like volume was the Only-Begotten and Word of God, the inhabitant, described by the aid of the Father who is eternal and without beginning, D and of the thrice-holy and life-giving Spirit. And that which he adds, « New, great, » denotes the true image of the shadow of the Law. « And write in it with the style of a man. » See how the prophet gradually reveals the secret counsel of the Father. « Take, he says, a new great book. » By which words he signifies the Father’s benevolent will concerning the Son. « And write in it with the style of a man. » As if to say: Even if the Son is of the nature of God, and God beyond change, He would yet be born as a perfect man without confusion and without sin: indeed, he speaks of the human form through a human style. Why so? « Make haste to take away the spoils, make haste to plunder. » By that word, he again recalls to memory the words of David: « Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive. » Indeed, by « High » he understands the cross; by the captives taken, the demolition of Hades and the redemption of those long-ago captives. But as for showing...
A the prophet’s irrevocable decree, he adds: « Presence, indeed. » On this point: Do not be distrustful because the event is in the future; for to me, God has declared this as if it were present—that is, as if it had already been accomplished. « Take for me faithful witnesses. » Imagine these witnesses not as those who would testify to a crime, but those who would testify by shedding their blood: Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Berechiah. This Zechariah is not to be understood as the present-day husband of Elizabeth, but another from the time of Hezekiah. For there existed before Hezekiah an impious king who, desiring to destroy the line of David on account of the promises divinely made to him, searched out Uriah and Zechariah; and when they had happened upon the one survivor of the Davidic line—whom they wished to preserve as the seed of David—they hid him. When this was discovered, the king added them to the choir of martyrs, crowned with glory. Know the history more accurately from the Book of Kings. « And I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. » Whom does he call the prophetess? The Virgin and Mother of God, who sang: « For behold, from this time all generations shall call me blessed: for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. » Behold here a most certain prophet! Above he says: « Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, » and a little later he says: « and she conceived, and bore a son. » How so? There, as something entirely future; here, as an established fact. « I approached the prophetess. » Understand this as if it were spoken by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin; for immediately upon his announcement, the virginal conception had followed closely. « And the Lord said to me: Call his name... »—either Christ, which denotes the Anointed One to the Jews; or Emmanuel, which is the same as saying, God-with-us; or Jesus, which is rendered as Salvation. For these names represent both natures of Christ. But let us examine what follows: « Hasten to take the spoils: make haste to plunder. » This declares the swift power of the Savior. And that this is true, the prophet himself, resolving the knot, says: « For before the child knows how to call his father and his mother, he will take the strength of Damascus. » Observe the prophet’s careful diligence regarding the child: for he did not say, « Before Christ, or Jesus, or Emmanuel—which denote both—knows, » but « The child; » for according to the nature that is beyond time, He is the mighty God, the all-powerful, the Prince of peace, the Father of the age to come: but according to the temporal B nature, He is the Child born of the Virgin, who will take the riches of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria from the king of Assyria. Confirming this, the prophet adds « God-with-us »: that is, the supra-temporal and omnipotent God; He who is always with the Virgin Mary, and through her, with us. « Therefore, know, O nations, and be overcome. » He calls those nations not those who worship and venerate Christ, and who confess and celebrate God—which is the Church from among the nations—but those who remain in the wickedness of idol worship. For those nations are finally to be crushed, even to the ends of the earth. « Hear, all you far-off lands. » By this he signifies the descent of the Word of God to the underworld and the propagation of the evangelical proclamation; for so also my Savior speaks in the Gospel: « This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations: and then the completion shall come. » « Be encouraged and be overcome. » You demons, he says, who exercise power over us men because of sin, you will be overcome by the strength of Him who was incarnate for our sake. Which is to say: even if conquered, you struggle, being most shameless; but you will be finally and completely overcome, prostrated by Christ’s resurrection. For with Christ restored to life, death no longer rules, and the hosts of demons have been prostrated. This may also be understood of sensible nations, without precluding its reference to Christ, whom the devil often attacked as a man, yet finally encountering Him as God, he collapsed. Form your counsel, whoever you are, against Christ: for although you assaulted the avaricious Judas, with the arrogant and proud scribes and lawyers, and although you conspired with Annas and Caiaphas, the wicked high priests, and finally with Herod and Pilate, those savage and inhuman princes, the Lord God shall dissolve your counsel—that is, He will frustrate it and show you to be impotent and weak. « The counsel will be dissipated: speak a word, and it shall not come to pass. » If you wish to know what this is like, the publican Matthew will teach you, whose words from the sacred Gospel are these: C « And on the next day, which is after the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered before Pilate, saying: Lord, we recall that that seducer said, while yet alive: After three days I will rise again. Order, therefore, the sepulcher to be guarded until the third day, lest his disciples come and steal him away and say to the people: He has risen from the dead: and the last error will be worse than the first. » This counsel and decree, therefore, God will dissolve. Since « God is with us. » God is with us from Abraham through the prophets, down to the census of Caesar Augustus; He is with us, having dwelt in assumed flesh, down to the descent into and return from the underworld: He is with us until the end of the ages, and into all eternity. For this is what is signified by the phrase thrice repeated by the prophet: « With us. » Know, O nations, that God is with us: « Hear, all you far-off lands, because God is with us; speak a word, and it shall not come to pass, because God is with us. » D What shall we do? Are these discussions thus far concerning the incarnation of the Son of God sufficient, or do you wish me to discourse further? Indeed, I could neither add more, nor could you receive it. I would indeed add more if I saw that you were devoted to the disputation. But since satiety of speech is an enemy—not to those who speak, but to those who hear—I believe that what we have said is sufficient: let us not attempt, as they say, to cross beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Therefore, it is time to move on to other things.
CHAPTER XXXVII. That God willed to become man, and concerning the lineage of David.
JUD. The Son of God surely descended from heaven and endured to be incarnate; but whence is it established that He willed to become man from the seed of Abraham and David?
CHRIST. From the genealogy of Joseph. A A certain detractor of the Virgin railed against her, saying: "Why do Christians extol Mary so greatly, calling her narrower than the Cherubim, incomparable to the Seraphim, more sublime than the heavens, and purer than the rays of the sun? If she is a woman of Davidic descent, born of a mother named Anna and a father named Joachim, who was the son of Panther. Panther and Melchi were brothers, sons of Levi of the lineage of Matthan, whose father David was of the tribe of Judah. Therefore, upon the death of Matthan, the father of Jacob, Melchi took the widow of Matthan—the mother of Jacob—and from her begat Eli; thus Jacob and Eli were uterine, not germane, brothers. Since Eli died in his forty-fifth year without children, Jacob took the wife of the (now deceased) Eli in accordance with the Law, to raise up seed to his brother, and from her begat Joseph, a son sought by nature for himself, but by the Law for Eli. Panther and Melchi, therefore, were brothers, sons of Levi (as is shown by Hebrew authors) and kinsmen of Joachim; so that Mary was the daughter of Joachim, betrothed to Joseph according to two lines, those of Matthan and Solomon—on the paternal side of David, and on the maternal side of Jacob the cousin, a kinsman of her father Joachim."
JUD. And why is the Virgin not recorded, but rather Joseph? For if according to human nature Christ is from the Virgin, but in no way from Joseph (who was indeed her betrothed, but not her husband), why is his lineage described rather than hers? Therefore, if you demonstrate to us that the Virgin is of the tribe of David, we will admit that this very person is the true Christ, and we will confess the Virgin to be the Theotokos. For concerning her, in the person of God, these are the words of David: "All the glory of the king's daughter is from within." And shortly after: "Virgins shall be brought to the king after her; her companions shall be brought to you." But if it is only from the genealogy of Joseph, then we do not admit that His origin is from David.
CHRIST. The wise say, "The speech of truth is simple." Therefore, if you also desire to know the certain truth, accept the simple truth. For it is the occupation of the wrangler to argue throughout his whole life and to embrace enmity. But the seeker of truth, applying his conscience like a scale to the things that are said, even if he is equal, does not wickedly strive to win at all costs, but there are times when he easily suffers himself to be overcome. Therefore, there was among you, as you clearly know, a law that everyone should take a bride of their own tribe and lineage, by reason of which the genealogy is furnished from your archives down to the present Christ. For if this were not so, how could the evangelists—Matthew indeed from Abraham through the forty-second generation down to Christ, and Luke from Christ, who is the second Adam, going back to the first, finishing the seventy-seventh without fraud—how could they have done so? Wherefore it is necessary that Joseph, being of the tribe of David, as you yourselves testify, took a wife of his own kin and tribe. But what of it if, perhaps, I have less accurately known the lineage of the Virgin? Would you cavil at the truth because of that, and speak against the Theotokos? Indeed, even if I did not have it in my sight, He who knows all things would surely have it, and neither would the Theotokos (if it may be so said) be in vain because of my ignorance. Not at all. For the sun does not fail to rise because of the nearsighted, nor are those gifted with sight deprived of light because of the blind.
CHAPTER XXXVIII. That Mary was born from the lineage of David is proved from the genealogy of the Jews.
Indeed, I shall provide the Virgin as having been born from the lineage and stock of David, and not from our own writings and decrees, but from a certain Jewish book into which I chanced upon while at the Orestiade, belonging to a Jew named Elias, a scholar of the law. D The same book also contained the genealogy of Joseph, twin to the one described in the sacred Gospel of Matthew. Furthermore, it stated that Joseph had four sons by his wife Salome: James, Simon, Judas, and Joses; and three daughters: Esther, Thamar, and Salome, who, having become the wife of Zebedee, gave birth to James and the evangelist John. Now, Joseph's wife was the daughter of Aggaeus, the brother of Zacharias the priest, the father of John the Baptist. Zacharias and Aggaeus were the sons of Barachias, born of the priest Abia. Moreover, at that time Joseph was a widower, such that Salome and John the Baptist were children of brothers, and for the latter Aggaeus, and for the former Zacharias, was the paternal uncle. I am speaking here of Salome, not the midwife of the Virgin Mary, but the wife of Joseph the carpenter. For that midwife was a cousin of Elizabeth and the Virgin, as the holy Gospel of Luke shows. For there were three sisters of Bethlehem, from the kingdom of Cleopatra and Sosipater, before the reign of Herod Antipater. The first was named Maria, the second Sobe, the third Anna. The first of these, having married in Bethlehem, gave birth to the midwife Salome. The second, herself also in Bethlehem, gave birth to Elizabeth; the third in Galilee gave birth to the Virgin Mary, whom Christians also invoke as the Theotokos; so that Salome, Elizabeth, and the Virgin were the daughters of three sisters. Thus that book contained the genealogy of the Virgin explained, which also declared the lineage of certain other Jews, whom it is of no concern to name now.
JUD. We indeed hope that Christ is to come, but we do not believe that He has yet come; since the time of the advent of the Israelite King Christ has not yet arrived.
CHRIST. That you do not rightly perceive the Scriptures I have often said, and it is no wonder, since Isaiah also spoke of you to this effect: "Hear—
the voice of the Lord saying: Go, and say to this people: Hear indeed, but do not understand; and see the vision, and do not know. The heart of this people has been made fat, and they hear heavily with their ears, and they close their eyes; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them.
Furthermore, hear the prophets speaking in these words, clearly predicting the coming Christ, not the one you erroneously expect—not God, but the Antichrist. Christ comes; whoever believes in Him will reign with Him; whoever does not believe will see Jerusalem overthrown—not that lower one, but the one above and heavenly.
CAPUT XXXIX. The prophecy of Daniel concerning Christ's advent.
A But it is pleasing to defeat this false expectation of yours, by examining again the written prophecies. Therefore, hear first what those of Daniel are, which obtain as follows: When Daniel, having even observed fasts, was supplicating God for the people, the angel Gabriel addressed him: "Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon the holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to wipe away iniquity, and to bring in everlasting justice, and to fulfill the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the B Saint of saints." This is Christ, the eternal justice, remitting all faults to men, and sealing—that is, bringing to an end—visions and prophecies. For after His advent, the prophet is no longer in use. For all prophets prophesied until John the Baptist. Now your parent Israel also says: "The prince shall not depart from Judah, nor the leader from his thigh, until what is destined comes; and he shall be the expectation of the nations." And indeed, after that Christ, the one expected by the nations, went forth, He abandoned both your kingdom and priesthood; which (two tasks in a way constitute themselves) are the prince and the leader. But if, as you affirm, Christ has not yet come, then that Moses is a liar, who wrote down the creation of the world and foretold future things; your parent Israel is a liar, and the prophet Daniel, and before them, the archangel Gabriel. C Oh, the numbness and blindness! But may it be a religious matter for me to say that any one of them lied: for how could the heralds of the absolute wisdom and truth, Christ, either say anything false, or utter a futile word at all?
But do you wish also to know the time? Therefore hear the archangel Gabriel, whose response to Daniel (33) was this: "Know therefore and observe: from the going forth of the word to restore Jerusalem again, even unto Christ the leader, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;" which count up four hundred and eighty-three years. "And he shall return: and the square and the walls shall be built again in the straitness of time. And after sixty-two weeks, Christ shall be killed," D deprived of justice and equity, and he shall destroy the city and the sanctuary together with the prince.
Now the meaning is such: In the four hundred and eighty-third year from the founding of Solomon’s temple and the city, the Savior of the world, Christ, shall be born to save the race of men and to overthrow the frauds of the devil. And that this is true, you yourselves, if you wish, may bear witness. For, in the reign of Aristobulus, prince of the Jews, the Romans corrupted the holy city, and took the race of the Israelites, together with the prince Aristobulus and his children, into bondage. From that time every prophecy, and kingdom, and priesthood perished, with Herod, a stranger, imposed as king upon the Israelites by the Romans, and clothed in a purple robe.
CAPUT XL. The calamities of the Jews brought upon them for their perfidy.
Moreover, Jeremiah also, many ages before, as if acting as a rear-guard witness, will speak: not only of the city, and the temple, and the priests, but lamenting in this dirge all the inhabitants entirely, women and infants: "How does the city sit solitary that was full of people?" Reflecting on the promise made to Abraham, and beholding the desolation of Jerusalem, Jeremiah, filled with anguish and deploring the imminent destruction, says: "How does the city sit solitary that was full of people? She is become as a widow, the mistress of the nations."
Where the prophet, full of distress, sets forth the cause of the future captivity, mindful of God's sentence to Hosea: "Go, take unto thee a wife of fornications, and make for thyself children of fornications: for the synagogue of the Jews will act the harlot;" and so "she is not my wife, and I will not be her husband." "The princess of provinces is made under tribute." For, having once been enriched with a priesthood and a kingdom, now she is everywhere tributary to the lords of all nations. "Weeping, she has wept in the night;" for she who, having rejected the intelligible Sun of justice, falls headlong from that light and sits in the darkness of ignorance, why should she not pour forth weeping through the night? "And her tears are on her cheeks." By these words the prophet signifies the baptism of the Only-Begotten; for because Christ was to strike her cheeks, naturally tears flow for her also down her cheeks. "There is none to comfort her from all her dear ones." There is not, he says, anyone to intercede for her: not Moses, who stipulated with God: "Either forgive them this sin; or if you do not, cut me out of your book which you have written." Not David, crying: "I am the one who has sinned; these who are the sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I beseech, be turned against me, and against my father's house." But those things happen
A to Jeremiah, confirming it in the person of God: "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, I would not hear them." "The ways of Zion mourn because there are none who come to the solemnity." May David and Jeremiah be praised for these words; for the former, anticipating the Babylonian exile, says in the person of the captives: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion. In the midst thereof we hung up our organs upon the willows. For there they that carried us away captives required of us the words of a song. And they that carried us away said: Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" They answered, who perhaps hoped for a return. But Jeremiah, sensing the ruin of the kingdom and the abrogation of the priesthood, having despaired of the return of the Jews to Zion, and as if limping, says in sadness: "The ways of Jerusalem mourn." Why? Because there were none to meet on the roads for the feasts. "All her gates are broken down." For since the Synagogue closed against itself the gates leading to piety, which are informed by intelligence, according to Isaiah, it blinded its own eyes and demented its own heart: "Lest perhaps it should see with its eyes, and hear with its ears, and understand with its heart, and be converted, and I should heal it." Therefore, it is not that the gates are so closed, but that they have succumbed to desolation. B and afflicted, so that even her little ones were led into captivity before the face of the pursuer." For because she had raged against Christ and slaughtered the infants of Bethlehem, these too shall be captives. "And all her beauty is departed from the daughter of Zion," who, having turned away from true majesty and one preeminent in form among the sons of men, had sent him into exile in Egypt. "Her princes are become like rams that find no pasture;" for since they would not, stirred by Christ’s sheep and cattle, be brought by the true Shepherd to eternal grasses, and be watered with heavenly must as if with water, and dwell in eternal houses, "Therefore her princes, like rams not finding pasture, went and were gone without strength before the face of the pursuer." Mindful of God's edict to the Jews, the prophet sang that sad strain: "They went without strength before the face of the pursuer," for indeed God says in Leviticus: "But if you will not hear me, nor do all my commandments, if you despise my laws, and contemn my judgments, so as not to do those things which are appointed by me, and to make void my covenant: I also will do these things to you: I will quickly visit you in need. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies. I will set my face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you. You shall flee when no man pursueth: and I will break the pride of your stubbornness. And I will give you heaven as iron, and earth as brass. Your labor shall be spent in vain, the earth shall not bring forth leaf, nor the trees yield fruit. And I will send in upon you the beasts of the field, that may destroy you and your cattle, and may make all things a small number; I will draw out the sword after you, and the land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed. Because you have walked contrary to me, I also will walk contrary to you in fury. Jerusalem hath sinned: therefore is she become unstable."
CHAPTER XLI
Christ put to death, the greatest of sins. Already above he had said that she was afflicted divinely on account of so many crimes; now he adds: "Jerusalem hath sinned." For there, indeed, he signifies the idolatries and divinations of the Israelites over an interval, but here the murder of Christ, wherefore he adds: "O all ye that pass by the way," that is, of virtue, "attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow: for he hath stripped me, as the Lord hath spoken in me." As if inviting them to look upon her in compassion, she accuses herself, as if she had fallen into an extreme crime. For what comparison is there between committed sins and the murder of Christ? None at all. This is the foulest of evils, this is the supreme wound. "Wherefore the Lord hath humbled me in the day of the wrath of his fury from on high" C D". A — "How hath the Lord covered with cloud in his anger the daughter of Sion?" By fire it is extinguished, for it is as though it is to darken, to be extinguished by fire. "He hath cast down from heaven unto earth the glorious land of Israel"; B and having been lost from divine hands, the glory of the Jews has been accounted as nothing. "The Lord hath forgotten in Sion festival and Sabbath." For because the Synagogue was enraged against the Maker who heals on the Sabbath, all festivals and Sabbaths were abrogated. "And in the reproach and indignation of his fury, the king and the priest". Whom does he commemorate here? Truly Herod and Caiaphas, who indeed exacerbated the glorious God: because of which he was offended and rejected the kingdom and the priesthood. For those who had moved bile by their rejection, they themselves, having been destitute, fell headlong into many vices; having suffered something like unto Pharaoh: "And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh," saith the Scripture; for indeed since he was not in the least softened, he was deservedly hardened.
"The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath cursed his sanctification." Do not triumph, O Jews, saith the prophet, because of the dignity of the priesthood: for on your account he removed his own altar and shrine for himself, for he considered your offerings as accursed: "The outwork and the wall likewise have mourned and are dissipated. Her gates have been fixed in the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: there is no law, and her prophets have not found a vision from the Lord. The elders of the daughter of Sion have sat upon the ground, they held their peace: they have sprinkled their heads with ashes, they have girded themselves with sackcloth," C they have cast down to the ground the primary virgins in Jerusalem. Having forgotten her former servitude (namely, in Egypt) and misery, and God who helped her, the Jewish nation was now boasting of its pontifical kingdom and celebration; now of its bulwarks and city fortifications, now of the power of its princes, the protection of the Law, the visions of the prophets, the celibacy of the priests; at times it was even priding itself in its pontifical vestments; which the prophet, soon foreseeing their destruction, embracing all things, most compassionately and most sorrowfully indeed, pursues and amplifies the calamity: "Mine eyes have failed for tears, my bowels are troubled, my glory is poured out on the earth." Unto what end these things, O prophet, unto what end? "Over the contrition of the daughter of my people, when the little one and the suckling fainted in the streets of the city... My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity, they have fallen by the sword; thou hast killed in the day of thy fury: thou hast smitten, nor hast thou had mercy. Thou hast called as if to a solemn day, those that terrified me round about"; sparing nothing, saith the prophet from the persona of the Synagogue to God, thou hast divided me like a cook, a crowd of neighbors having been called to me from everywhere, on my mournful day as if it were a solemn one. "And there was not in the day of the fury of the Lord any that fled and was left". To such a degree has the dregs of divine wrath been poured out, that D
A no one was preserved or left surviving, but all were given over to slaughter. "He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow"; he calls the bow the avenging power of the Divinity, by which the Synagogue was so smitten that it was set up for those desiring to shoot and aim as a target, that is, as a sign. "He hath sent into my reins the sons of his quiver". This is indeed David’s sentiment toward God: "Try my reins and my heart: for thy mercy is before mine eyes: and I have been well pleased in thy truth". Kindle my zeal toward thee, which he intimates through the reins, as he explains himself elsewhere: "Lord, all my desire is before thee"; and again: "My loins are filled with illusions", noting by these contrary desires; and calling the Son of God mercy and truth. But the Synagogue, since it did not seek to be burned with such a fire, but turned toward monstrous and absurd desires, deservedly received afterward into its reins the arrows of his quiver, being not at all delighted by the truth of God.
Indeed, upon Christ being hidden in the lowest pit, and a great stone having been placed upon the sepulcher, they underwent the same condition; except that they perpetrated this against God, and having provided a guard, they fortified the stone with a seal; hence also God executed, as if sealing, what had been decreed against them. "The noble sons of Sion, and they that were clothed with fine gold: how are they esteemed as earthen vessels, the work of the hands of the potter". The prophet, looking upon the creation of God as excellent and august, wonders that it has been corrupted by the Jews, having migrated from golden to earthen. But, in truth, all mortals are so constituted by their earthly nature, that until we fashion and engrave within ourselves the divine grace, we are and are held to be far below gold and precious B gems, to speak with David. But when we are cast down from that state through sin, we appear not as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter, but as being more than nothing, nothing at all. "The tongue of the sucking child cleaved to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children asked for bread, and there was no man that breaketh it unto them". The crime of Judea, he says, is so great that it exceeds the restraint of the law. For in it God says through Moses: "Every man shall die for his own sin"; here he condemns in slaughter, so that now even sucklings and infants perish. "And the iniquity of the daughter of my people is made greater than the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown in an eternal subversion". For there, although a huge and horrible crime was turned to, yet the Sodomites did not kill even Lot, who was just and accusing them. But the Synagogue did wickedly drive to the cross and slaughter the Only-begotten of God, who, as a leader of the divine kingdom, was leading it to the heavenly Jerusalem. Wherefore its crime is greater than that of Sodom, and its punishment is sad and eternal. "I was made a derision to all my people: their song all the day". Glory, he says, was formerly flourishing, but now I am a mockery, and to men singing with songs and poems chanted to God, I offer a perpetual song and scorn. "He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath inebriated me with wormwood". What is this, O Synagogue, O crime, O wickedness? Because you have made the Only-begotten Son of God drink gall and vinegar, through whom "honey out of the rock, and oil out of the hardest rock". "And he hath broken my teeth by number". Rightly: since you impiously put the tree into his bread. "He hath fed me with ashes: and my soul is removed far from peace". Not unjustly, when you despised him who had fed you with manna, and you lethally hated him who is true peace. "I have forgotten good things: and I said: My victory is perished, and my hope from the Lord". You are receiving a fruit worthy of your deeds: for you have removed God's mercy so far, that not only, as you confess, are you forgetful of past good things; but you do not hold any hope at all henceforth. "My eyes have failed with my life over the daughters of my people". The prophet here names as daughters of the people the neighboring and bordering cities. "Thou hast set us in the midst of the nations: all my enemies have opened their mouth over us". For those who had disposed the Son of God by counsel are, as if in a certain populous C circle, prostituted by taunts and the shaking of heads through the nations and peoples. And just as they tore Christ with curses, so also the mouth of all enemies has been opened against them. "My enemies have caught me with a hunt as a bird without cause". Why? Because they strove to ensnare and catch the Only-begotten of God, with the Herodians and Pharisees. "My life has fallen into a pit: and they have laid a stone over me". Twin to these are those of David, O Synagogue, he says: The pit D "Better were it for those killed with the sword, than for those killed with famine". Having executed the first crime, the prophet added the diversity of the punishment afterward, pointing out that it is worse to have been done to death by famine than by the sword. "The hands of merciful women have sodden their own children". Who does he indicate here are merciful? Those who, accepting it with a sense of the crime, followed Christ’s cross weeping: whom he addressed and said: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For behold the days will come, in which they will say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not given suck". Those women, mindful of these words of the merciful Christ, being like, as much as possible, to them, sodden their own born, and "became food for them". A punishment greater than consolation, and the threats are not to be deprecated (they said to themselves): the promiser is truthful, the time is present, behold the end. "The Lord hath accomplished his fury, he hath poured out the heat of his indignation: and he hath kindled a fire in Sion, and it hath devoured".
". A "The young men have crawled in the streets, they are polluted in blood, though they could not". There was no one to bury them in the earth, the mound of the street was made, and thus they rotted with their garments. "Our eyes failed for our help, when we were looking into vanities". That voice of the prophet David is dead among us; there is no one who can say with confidence: "God, attend to my help; O Lord, make haste to help me". "We have looked for a nation that could not save". For because we rejected the divine power and help of God, we were therefore looking to an undefended nation. "The faces of the priests have not been ashamed". He says, we have excluded the mercy of God from our sins, wherefore even the enemies have not reverenced the faces of the priests. Neither have they pitied the old men, they have hunted our little ones, that they should not go about in our streets. Our steps have disappeared; therefore your iniquity has failed, daughter of Sion, that is, blotted out, you shall no longer admit guilt. The Lord shall add no more to make you migrate. "He shall not turn back," he says, "nor shall you be sent away again." And that this is true, the following proves: "He has visited your iniquity, daughter of Edom; not with a rod, as he pursued heretofore, when he healed you by chastising you, but consigning you to slaughter. B He has uncovered your sins," that is, he has fulfilled all just wrath, your sins being covered, as if the water of the sea covers it.
But lest we turn this argument, undertaken for doctrine and instruction, into a subject of grief and lamentation, let us turn the rudders of our speech to the glorious and divine discipline of grace. Therefore, the devastation of Jerusalem happened in the year from the creation of the world five thousand, five hundred and sixty-three: but up to the present, six thousand, eight hundred and eighteen: the Jews have been in exile without a kingdom for exactly one thousand two hundred and fifty-five years. Now the state and stability of the world, as we have learned from the seers, has been described by the Maker in seven ages. Which Solomon also says: "Give a portion to seven, and also to eight," noting that the eighth is that which is to be immortal. These having passed, there shall arise a foul pestilence of a man, a lawless one, and an impostor, whom C you claim to be Christ and King. He shall come, however, not as my Savior and God, Redeemer and Vindicator of human salvation; but as foul and ill-omened, dragging in calamities, anguish, all evils, and miseries. For he will not so restrain the worship of idols, or bring the nations to the knowledge of God, that he will not, on the contrary, publish error, and having found all who are fit for the knowledge of God, he will attempt to remove them from it, just as—
CAPUT XLII. Of the coming of the Antichrist.
Indeed, the words of Daniel concerning him are these: "An impostor and calumniator shall come, and he shall crush the saints of the Most High: and he shall think that he can change times and laws, and they shall be delivered into his hand until a time, and times and half a time." But Jeremiah speaks of his craftiness: "The partridge has called, it has gathered what it did not lay: doing its riches not with judgment: in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and in his last state he shall be a fool." D Again likewise: "Cursed is the man, who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like the tamarisk in the desert, and he shall not see when good shall come; but shall dwell in drought in the desert, in a land of salt and uninhabitable." And again: "At that time it shall be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A spirit of error in the desert; the way of the daughter of my people, not to be washed, nor to reach the holy. A spirit of fullness shall come to me from them. Behold, as a cloud he shall ascend, and his chariots as a tempest, his horses are swifter than eagles: for the voice of one announcing from Dan shall come." And in another place: "From Dan the sound of his horses was heard, at the voice of the neighing of his warriors all the land was moved, and they came and devoured the land, and its fullness: the city and its inhabitants." It must be sought, truly, why this prophet remembers this Dan, not once, but twice. Why? Because from the tribe of Dan, Judas and the Antichrist are to issue. Therefore against Judah are these words of Israel: "Dan shall be a serpent."
Concerning the Antichrist, Jeremiah writes: "A voice of those who proclaim from Dan shall come." A Now concerning the ministers of Isaiah, there is also this sentiment: "You who prepare a table for the demon and fill the cup of fortune, all shall fall in the slaughter." And again: "They provoked his Holy Spirit, and he was turned against them to be their enemy." Concerning the destruction of this perverter, the same (prophet) recorded for memory: "In that day the Lord shall bring his holy and great sword, and stretching out his hand against the dragon, the crooked serpent, the Lord shall strike the sea monster that is in the sea." And David says of the true Christ: "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship in his sight." See that there is no kingdom left until the advent expected by you—the raving one—where Christ, the true God, is not worshiped: "Because the kingdom is the Lord's, and he shall rule over the nations. All the fat ones of the earth have eaten and worshiped." By "the fat ones" he refers to the souls of the pious, who are also "birds" according to the Law, for their virtues: those who, suppliant to Christ, have feasted upon his sacred body and drunk his blood. "In his sight shall fall all who descend into the earth"; he calls those who descend into the earth those attached by the devotion of things, which are contained in material ways, who, even before the advent and presence of Christ, shall be punished, condemned by a kind of prejudice of their own. "And my soul shall live for him, and my seed shall serve him." To whom? To the Son of God, generated from the womb before the daystar; who in the end was incarnate from the Virgin—not, I say, shall my soul serve that impostor devoted to deadly things, whom in his middle time the prudent will abandon, about to receive crowns in heaven as the reward for a noble deed.
CHAPTER XLIII.
On the veneration of images.
For these and similar reasons, it is not idolatry, which you imagine, that is to be practiced, but we offer pious veneration to images; for David says, "God is wonderful in his saints." And, "Do I not hate those who hate thee, O Lord, and I pined away over thy enemies?" For just as it is right to embrace and honor those who are dear to God, so it is right to turn away from and hate those who are hostile. Indeed, the same Prophet says, "But to me, thy friends, O God, have been greatly honored."
CHAPTER XLIV.
Two examples of the perfidy of the Jews toward the image of Christ.
At Berytus (that city is not far from the illustrious Antioch), such a strange miracle occurred, full of pleasure and terror, and which deserves to be recounted. B A certain Christian, from religious parents and ancestors, lived very close to the Jews' synagogue, and, moved by a special kind of devotion as his patrimony, had a depiction of God and Savior fixed to a life-giving cross drawn on a tablet, which hung high under the roof of his house. When he once had occasion to move, and when the rest of the household effects had been taken out, he had forgotten that one single divine treasure, the depiction of the Savior, I know not whence and in what manner, though it was certainly through divine providence. Thus, while the pious man was emigrating, and a Jew was immediately immigrating, some days later, having prepared a sumptuous table, he invited a fellow Jew to a banquet. With him present, both were merry, feasting together; and while they were reclining on the couches for the feast, having been called, as is the custom, C for family members, eyes were cast up to the ceiling, and the friend examined the house more curiously; and having fixed his gaze on the image, he perceived it to be him whom his forefathers had led to the cross; although he was already fierce and changed to a surly disposition, his sides almost cut and torn, yet, so that it might not be openly revealed to his friend, he again pretended and feigned joy. Finally, unable to contain himself and overcome by the anger he had been restraining until then, he revealed the secret: he called the man and, pointing a finger at the divine image, asked whose likeness it was, if it were not the Nazarene's, and if it were not the Galilean's, and if it were not the one fixed to the cross by his ancestors? "Is it truly so?" says the turncoat, "you who live in this place, do you also follow the Christian religion?" The latter, at a loss for counsel, admitted that this was indeed the case, but that he knew nothing of the crime of Christianity; that he had been a Jew from his ancestors, as he himself knew, and was addicted to the Mosaic law or to slaughter. But when he could not persuade him with speech, he finally turned to prayers, entreating that he not reveal it to the synagogue, but keep it to himself alone. D Having promised, therefore, but with deceit and perjury, he departed from there, and hurried straight to the synagogue, where he recounted what kind of thing he had seen and what he had said. Upon hearing this, they rushed in fury to the house at once. Where they saw what they had learned to be true, they mocked him, as if he were a Christian, and dragged him out, treated with scorn, and proscribed him. But further, who can tell, without tears, what things were attempted against the sacred and divine image? First, they tore it down and cast it to the ground; then, with the same examples by which the ancestors of your people treated my Jesus, they treated his image: they spat upon it, they delivered blows and slaps, they scoffed, they offered gall and vinegar. A sponge was at hand, nor was a reed lacking. They fastened his hands and feet (for they did not abstain from nails), they crowned it with thorns, and with a spear in the side (oh, the audacity committed in the end!), a flow of blood and water was produced, which thing provided worship and fame for Christ. For upon the sight of this great and terrible miracle, after the test was made of the danger of the gushing stream, they confirmed the faith in the matter, and by it every disease and ailment was to be cured, and the crowd of demons was to be driven away from afar and put to flight; and with their whole soul and whole mind, they…
A changed towards Christ, and as if reformed, they were affected by the sacred baptism. Such are the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, the most loving of men, the Only-Begotten, the Word of the Father, greater than thought and words, the mysteries: so solicitous is He for His own creation, that He wishes no one to perish, but all to come to the knowledge of the truth. And these things, indeed, happened at Berytus.
But it would be a sin to pass over in silence another miracle at Constantinople, the queen of cities, since it is nothing inferior to the story above. In the august and famously celebrated temple of God's Wisdom (if it ought to be called a temple, and not rather another heaven on earth) there is a well, which is called nothing else but what it is, a well: bearing its own witness, to which the deep of wisdom, the fountain of immortality, the infinite sea of providence, addressed the Samaritan woman, whom He questioned by design, wishing to transfer her to the living and welling water of the knowledge of God, and, as it were, to derive it. A multitude of the pious used to flock together to obtain the sacred power implanted in it; and at the same time, those who would vie in venerating the image of the Lord, described on a tablet above the eastern gate, and, as it were, a dedication by the hand of a painter, to which they flocked even more than to the well. But a certain Jew, I know not how—certainly by God’s agency—having entered the temple himself, and having seen the whole crowd in veneration, struck with envy, and wishing to betray the things to which he was born and the opinion he held, he reveals it. Indeed, he brings it forth. For as the others were departing from the well, he alone, having watched the secret passage, after he did not miss his mark, having found security, rushes in, and with bloodthirsty eyes, mind, and intent, looking upon the fiery one, breathing fire, with a knife steadied in his hand, O eternal King, he strikes the image. Whence, by an insolent miracle, a stream of blood flows down, and both the striker and the holy ground are stained. He, not reflecting on the deed as he ought, but rather raging more, plunges the detached image, with the knife still fixed in it, into the well, and he himself flees thence, B wherever his feet carried him, hastening to hide, as he thought. But He who catches the wise in their own craftiness made this attempt also public. For since he was red with blood from the image, and was clearly acting the part of a blood-stained man and a deceiver, he was caught by the religious who were entering, and accused of homicide. He denies the charge of homicide, but seriously professes himself a Christ-killer. The fame of this deed traverses the whole city with rapid wing, and the multitude rushes to the well, where they gathered, and, having drawn the sacred image from the well, while it was still dripping with blood, they chanted hymns and songs, and with prayers and tears suspended it in the same place as before. The Jew, repentant of the deed, having been fully taught piety, and received by Christ, together with all his family, is subjected to the sacred bath of regeneration. What do you say? Are these things enough, or do you require more arguments?
Jew. We confess that worship is piously rendered to images.
For indeed, they who look not towards colors and dyes, but rather venerate the God before the ages and the invisible One—wherefore our ancestors, with the cherubim fashioned from noble material, gold, did not indeed worship the gold, but the cherubim, which they fashioned to encompass the sanctuary more holily. And so much for the Images. But why, having repudiated circumcision, do you claim that the baptized enter into partnership with God?
Christ. Having spoken much concerning circumcision, and having demonstrated how we repudiate it, there is no need that we should refer to it again. But let us discuss the subject of baptism more at length.
CAPUT XLV. Comparison of the baptism of Christians with circumcision.
I have shown that you too have brought a suffrage from me and from the truth, that the Mosaic matters were certain figures of my Savior Christ. For just as an outstanding painter first sketches in outline, then represents the true image expressed with a thicker tint and colors; in that same way, God, the architect of all the nature of things, through Moses and the Law, shaped things as if they were falling under grace, but through Jesus Christ, not with tint and colors, but with evangelical precepts, He dedicated a certain breathing and living true image. But just as the clouds and voices and trumpets of God at Sinai C clearly indicated His descent to us; so too many other things of old noted the dispensation of my Savior. Therefore, perceive the types and examples, whence you may be led to the truth. In the Law, circumcision; in grace, washing. There, the cutting of a piece of skin; here, the laying aside of sin. There, the knife of circumcision, making the religious and the irreligious plain; here, the edge of discipline, dissecting the right from the wrong. There, a lamb sacrificed without blemish; here, Christ sacrificed without sin. There, the doorposts are smeared with the blood of the lamb; here, the actions and discipline are sealed with the august blood of the sacrificed Christ—that is, the virtue placed in action and in contemplation, by which, as if by certain joints of a post, we are bound and composed as the Christian discipline. There, stubborn Pharaoh attacks the Israelites; here, Satan attacks the Christians, he the hater of men and sower of tares. There, the cloud leads the ancient Israelite to earthly Jerusalem; here, the flesh of the Savior transmits the novice Israelite to the heavenly Sion. There, a pillar of fire; here, the divine fiery nature—this is the Spirit. There, the Israelite having crossed the Red Sea, provided a tomb for Pharaoh in the water, he himself escaping, saved, to extinction; here, the whole body of those accounted under the name of Christ, buried with Christ through baptism, has acquired immortal life through Him who rose again. There, the water, at the prayers of Moses, with the blowing of a most vehement south wind, solidified into a wall on the right and on the left; here, the Spirit
having reduced the sins of our handwriting to dry land, as if it were a certain Red Sea of vices. There, the rod compelled the receding waves; here, the Cross fixed on Calvary restored Adam completely to his former nobility. The Israelites could not feed on the bread of angels unless they had crossed the Red Sea; nor, indeed, can the people of Christ enjoy the living water and blood, unless they have died to sin as if in a summer heat.
JUD. Why do you not call baptism by one name always, as we call circumcision, but by many and diverse ones?
CHRIST. The solution is easy: the latter was given through one Moses; the former, from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, because of its many and diverse offices toward us, we make many and diverse nomenclatures and benefits for it.
CHAPTER XLVI.
By what names baptism was once designated.Therefore A (38) we call it gift, light, baptism, ointment, laver of regeneration, garment of immortality, a sign—in short, whatever is august—taking these terms from the oracles of the prophets. A gift, in the first place, as Isaiah cries: "All you who thirst, come to the waters: and you who have no money, make haste, buy without money and without price." A light, as David predicts of it: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?" And again: "The Lord enlightens the face of the prudent." Calling him wholly prudent who understands the power of holy baptism. It is called baptism, as that in which sins are entombed, just as Moses drowned and overwhelmed Pharaoh in the Red Sea. A laver, from this sentiment of Isaiah: "Be washed, be clean." An ointment, by which the heirs of the celestial Jerusalem and the divine kingdom are known to be anointed. For thus God also said to the prophet Elisha (39): "You shall anoint Elisha the prophet in thy stead." We call it the garment of immortality from that edict of the royal Psalmist: "The Lord has reigned, He is clothed with beauty." Then, moreover, so that he might show that the heirs of Christ are likewise clothed, he adds: "For He has established the world, namely with this royal garment, which shall not be moved." A sign, as a mark of ownership, just as David professes concerning it: "The light of your countenance is signed upon us, O Lord, you have given gladness in my heart." By which words D he declares the power of the holy immersion: for, he says, not only have you signed and enlightened me with your name, but you have also affected my soul with pleasure: that is, you have deigned to grant me, signed one, the forgiveness of offense. The same in another Psalm: "I said: I will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord: and you have forgiven the impiety of my sin." Saying this: but if anyone, even after baptism, commits a wrong, let him not despair, since his soul’s stain is forgiven him—the vicious thought, I say, and the depravity, through confession.
But let us hear what Isaiah says: "The Lord of Sabaoth shall make for all nations upon this mountain... they shall be clothed with joy, they shall be anointed with ointment, they shall drink wine;" signifying baptism as a garment of joy; that holy ointment with which the baptized are anointed; and wine, the Lord's blood. And again: "The Lord shall wash away the filth of the sons and of the daughters." And again: "The dry land shall be into pools, and in the thirsty land there shall be a spring of water;" he calls the people of the Gentiles the dry and thirsty land; but the spring, sacred baptism, as appears from what follows: "And there shall be there a clean way, and it shall be called a holy way." What is this way? The evangelical discipline. Now God says through him: "I am, I am He who blot out your iniquities for my own sake, and I will not remember. But do you remember, and let us be judged together." And again: "I will give water in the thirst to those who walk in the dry land: and I will pour my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessings upon your children." And again: "The pitier of them shall pity them, and will lead them through fountains of waters." But if any of the Jews think that the prophet is speaking of Mara and the fountains in Elim, let them know they are mistaken: for Isaiah was not at that time, but lived much later: nor is he to be considered a prophet who speaks of the past, but one who speaks of future things, wherefore he shows that what he foretold of baptism, he said: "He shall lead," and not "he led."
In the same manner, Micah also: "Who, O God, is like to you, who take away iniquity, and pass by the sin of the remnant of your inheritance? He will not send forth his fury any more, because he holds mercy. He will return and will have mercy on us: he will put down our iniquities and will cast them into the bottom of the sea." But these are the words of Joel concerning baptism: "In that day the mountains shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk: and waters shall go through all the rivers of Juda: and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord." Who is this fountain coming forth from the house of God? It is altogether the holy font in the Church, by which every Christian assembly is bathed and recreated into adoption, designated as heirs of celestial glory and of the kingdom of Christ. And David writes of the same baptism of majesty: "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the God of majesty has thundered: the Lord is upon many waters." And again: "Wash me more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." And a little later: "You shall sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: you shall wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow." Furthermore, God also confirms through Ezekiel: "I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your defilements."
A Indeed, at Mara, the bitter water denoted sin, which is to be turned into sweetness by the washing of regeneration and repentance. Moreover, the twelve springs at Elim designated the doctrine of the twelve apostles, and the seventy palm trees likewise the rest of them. Furthermore, the crossing of the Jordan by the Ark, performed by the Jews, showed the power of holy baptism; for, recreated by water and the Spirit through the priests, we too, like Joshua the son of Nun [when we enter] Jericho, overthrow and despoil sin, for this signifies what the prophet says: "And [the water] which was flowing down, it descended into the Arabah sea, the salt sea, until it failed at the end"; that is, the sin of the formerly violated law flowed down into the immense sea of God’s humanity until it was finally extinguished. The priests standing in the Jordan, with the soles of their feet dipped in the water, signify, I believe, that no one is free from sin. But the fact that Elijah crossed the Jordan once with his mantle, and Elisha twice, B prefigured the power and efficacy of the threefold immersion in holy washing into the name of the Most Holy Trinity, by which the mortal and perishable assumes incorruptible immortality. Nor does Naaman, ordered to wash seven times in the Jordan, seem to me to mean anything else than that we must strive, as if in this one week of life, with all sins wiped away, to offer [ourselves] whole through the seven gifts of the Spirit, the three powers of the soul, and the quaternity of the elements of the body, the former leprosy being obliterated. Indeed, Jacob, your forefather, did not cross the Jordan alone with his staff, but his whole family also passed over; but the sheep as well, and the oxen, so as to show that not only those chosen by God, but even those who committed crimes through brutishness and madness, would be purified and made co-heirs of Christ. The waters of Jericho, too, rendered fertile by salt through Elisha, showed the former sterility of the Church, which was to have from Christ a hundred times more children than she had brought forth before to the synagogue-husband. But that we may establish these things more clearly, let us pursue the words of the prophecy from the Books of Kings. For they are as follows.
CHAPTER XLVII
A comparison of Elijah with Christ.
"Elijah said to the people, 'Come near to me.' And all the people came near to him." Indeed, Elijah, having C completed this function, was carried up into heaven in a chariot of fire, as it were, after a certain earthquake had arisen. But on the contrary, and more miraculously, He who is the Artificer of heaven, having descended with the heavens benignly inclined, and being like a certain vehicle of the nature [He] assumed, eagerly desires to draw all men to Himself. Therefore, He says: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "And he took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob." Elijah [took] twelve stones—the begotten Son of God [took] the twelve apostles: "To whom the word of the Lord came, saying: Israel shall be your name." He indeed heard that he was to be a mind that would see God; here is the God whom all heavenly D minds adore and praise. And: "He built up the stones and repaired the ruined altar." He restores the ruined altar of God; He, by the doctrine of the apostles, repairs His own lacerated creation. "And he made a conduit of water as if [by] two furrows." There, one trench, which might contain two seahs of seed; here, in one person, two natures, divine and human, existed simultaneously: "In the circuit of the altar"—by the altar here, understand the place of Calvary, where the august cross was fixed. "And he arranged the wood upon the altar which he built." The wood, or splinters from a dry tree, he calls those who took on their own bodies the scourges of men, which our Lord, having been affixed to the cross, took upon Himself, and who, being a certain divine fire, consumed [them], as the prophet says: "He himself bore our infirmities." "And he divided the ox among the members, and placed it upon the wood." That is, He sustains the life-giving death on the cross. "And he says: Fill four water-jars with water, and pour it upon the holocaust and upon the wood." By the two jars, he signifies the grace that is provided through water and the Spirit, just as my Savior and my God confirms, [who says] that unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. "And again he said: Do it even a second time. And when they had done it a second time, he said: Do the same a third time. And they did it a third time." This shows the threefold majesty of the divinity, just as my Jesus again commanded the disciples to go and teach all nations, and to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And the waters ran around the altar; and the trench was filled with the conduit of water. For the whole world has been filled with the kingdom and glory of God. And Elijah called out into heaven and said: "O Lord God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Israel, hear me, O Lord." This is Elijah. But the Only-Begotten of God, with eyes lifted to heaven, cried out: "Father, I will that where I am, they also may be with me, that they may see my glory, which thou hast given me before the foundation of the world: that they may be one, even as we are one. I do not pray for these only, but for those who are to believe on me through their word." "Hear me today in fire, and let all this people learn that thou art the only Lord God of Israel." Elijah, who was a man, being heard by showing fire, prays that God, who is a certain fire, might become man: He, however, who is both God and fire, willed to become man by assuming my flesh, that He might liberate [us] from the eternal fire. "And I, thy servant." Truly of Himself [did] Elijah [speak]: if it is drawn to the sublime sense, it is too...
bold. For, even if some have not doubted and have dared to confirm from the person of Christ, saying, to wit: "Because I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid"; having in mind that [saying]: "The Father is greater than I," yet there is far more difference between lordship and servitude than between cause and that which is caused. Wherefore one should rather be silent and contemplate, than be overly curious, nor should one act without risk. "And for thy sake I have done all these things." For thy sake, He says, I was fixed to the cross: "That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." And again: "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." — "And thou didst turn the heart of this people after thee." A He marks the blindness and obstinacy of the Jews, just as the Lord also says from the cross: "Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do." — And fire fell from the Lord from heaven. Do you see the manifestation of the humanity of Christ? The fire fallen from heaven shows the descent of the divinity, as one of great name among our own says: "Our God is a fire; and indeed a consuming fire" of sins. "And it devoured the holocausts, and the wood, and the water that was poured out, and the water in the sea: and the fire licked up the stones and the earth." This signifies the destruction and obliteration of sins. "And all the people fell upon their face, and said: The Lord he is God." For since mortal death was undergone, the centurion and those standing by said that our Lord Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God. B And not they alone, but the apostles also, after the punishment, became confirmers. Since the Beloved says: "For neither did his brethren believe in him." Yea, the whole world far more joyfully received the proclamation of the Only-Begotten, as Isaiah testifies at length about Him: "They shall walk in it (to wit, Jerusalem) redeemed by the Lord (by precious blood), and shall turn and come into Sion." That is, from erroneous superstition, joyful and exultant they shall come to Christ, having been established by His resurrection. "And everlasting joy upon their head." They shall rejoice, he says, upon the recognition of their head, which is Christ. "They shall obtain joy and gladness": that is, joyful and exulting they shall preach their champion. "And sorrow and sighing shall flee." He confirms that there will remain no sorrow and sighing in them, C for whom there is eternal joy upon their head. Nor did he say "upon the head" idly, but that he might declare the joy to be the most eminent of all joys. What he adds: "everlasting joy," pertains to this, that you might not believe that this joy, I mean the grace of baptism, is fleeting and temporary, but perennial and everlasting. For as the first Adam, by violating the law, procured temporal death for us; so also Christ, who is the second Adam, having been embodied without sin, conferred perennial and incorrupt immortality. And just as through the body they were born and took on the image of the terrestrial [man]; so, recreated through baptism, we have put on the heavenly image: "For whosoever of you have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ."
And I think this is enough concerning baptism. But if indeed you have not perceived the truth from these things, not even if we should add more, will you perceive it. The Lord, signifying this very thing, confirms to you: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither if one rise again from the dead, will they believe." And so let us also conclude the discussion about baptism.
Jew. But what prevents one from having faith in Christ, and confessing Him to be the true God, and Son of God, of the same nature as the Father, and meanwhile keeping and holding the Mosaic law; so that in all things I may serve and embrace both, being a partaker of two goods? This thing will bring no blame upon us at all, nor is anyone going to say that what is good, that same thing is not good.
Christ. It is indeed very good, if you show yourself a partaker not only of two, but even of more goods. But you can neither grasp the knowledge of both, nor does any of the saints permit it, or Christ Himself in the first place, whose sentiment this is: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will sustain the one, and despise the other." Moreover, a good is good only so far as it is not a detriment to another good, and contrived for the dissolution of the better. If on the contrary it acts so, it might perhaps seem good to some, but the function is certainly by no means good. For even a certain philosopher deems that a good is not a good, if you do not use it well. Now indeed, as not every dissension is the worst, but sometimes is even the best: so not every concord is the best, but often is most harmful. But that I may show the force of His sentiment more clearly, I will attempt to declare the matter by examples.
Chapter 48. Comparison of the Law of Christ with Moses.
The majesty of the Holy Trinity produced three laws: the natural, the written, and the spiritual. Of these, the natural was like household fire. For when men dragged [their lives] in the ignorance of the latter two, they were for a time illuminated by the natural law, as if by a certain household fire. Then the written [law] was published, which was a certain shadow and example of the spiritual, likened to moonlight. But that celestial and spiritual [law], since it proceeded from the true Sun of justice, shone forth above the sun, and suffused men's minds with a certain light and ray, and led them to the way of truth. Therefore the fire appearing in the darkness is a good and domestic [light], but [it is] better than the moon; D [but]...
after the Sun of justice has risen, and the truth of grace is revealed, both the natural and the written law have been abrogated. In the same way, the legal Passover, as a certain theologian of ours says, was a darker image of an image. Now Paul, the mouth of my Christ, born of the tribe of Benjamin, teaches that we see in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect has come, then what is in part will be destroyed. Wherefore, as the shadow and effigy of that perfect restoration of ours is whatever has been placed in the middle, so indeed, with the spiritual law having been brought into the world, there is no need for any other [law] on91ward. Nor does the spiritual [law] differ one whit from the written, but rather it confirms and restores it; a fact to which my Jesus himself testifies in these words: “Do not think that I have come to loosen the law or the prophets; I have come not to loosen, but to fulfill.” And so that you may see more clearly, let us establish the truth with the very words themselves. Therefore the law also has: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.” And again: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The same Lord [says this] indeed in the holy Gospel of Luke. And these not only, but adds: “On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets.” The old [law] says: You shall not kill; the Christian [law] even offers the cheeks to those wishing to strike. That [one says]: “You shall not commit adultery;” this [one says]: “You shall not even covet.” That [one says]: “You shall not steal;” this [one permits] litigation, and to him who wishes to take your tunic, it permits your cloak as well. That [one says]: You shall not covet the things of others; this [one says]: You shall give up even things rightfully earned; that [one says]: You shall not commit perjury; the spiritual [one says]: You shall swear neither a small nor a great oath; as if creating perjury by an oath. For these and similar reasons the Savior says: “I have not come to loosen the law, or the prophets, but to fulfill,” that is, to keep, to establish, to confirm. And so that we may relate these things more searchingly and eloquently, let us bring forward into the middle the sentences of the prophets.
CAPUT XLIX. Prophecies concerning the abrogation or correction of the Judaic law.
Moses in Deuteronomy: “When you have entered the land which the Lord your God will give you, beware that you do not wish to imitate the abominations of those nations. But the Lord will raise up for you a prophet like me; him you shall hear in all things.” Jeremiah: “Behold, days shall come, says the Lord: and I will strike a new covenant with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant which I struck with their fathers in the day that I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt: the covenant which they made void. And I disregarded them, says the Lord. But this will be the covenant that I will strike with the house of Israel: After those days, says the Lord, I will give my law into their bowels, and in their heart I will write it: and I will be to them for a God, and they will be to me for a people. And no man will teach his neighbor, and man his brother, saying: Know the Lord; for all will know me from the least of them even to the greatest, says the Lord: because I will be merciful to their iniquity, and of their sin I will remember no more.” And through Ezekiel, God [says]: “I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth: and I will raise up for you an everlasting covenant.” And again: “This proverb shall not be thrown about any more: that the sins of the parents pursue the sons and grandchildren, but he who has eaten the sour grape, their teeth shall be set on edge.” And Isaiah: “The former things have flowed away; and I announce new things: before they spring forth, I will make them known to you.” Having uttered these things, the prophet adds: “Sing to the Lord a new song.” For since the former things have flowed away; and those things which were obscurely figured once, are now liquidly fulfilled. “Sing to the Lord a new song.” B The same furthermore: “His princedom is glorified above, and they glorify his name from the extremity of the earth: [those] who go down into the sea, and sail it, and many islands.” And indeed the new law of Christ is preached both on high in the heavens, and on earth. For at the birth of the Savior the angels together with the shepherds sang in praise: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.” Isaiah then again: “A savior will come from Sion, and will turn away from the impiety of Jacob. And this will be my testament for them, when I have taken away their failings.” Jeremiah on that sentence: “This is our God, and another shall not be estimated against him. He has found out every way of discipline,” and what follows; he adds: “This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law which is for eternity. All who hold it will come to life: but those who have abandoned it [will come] to death.”
Judaizer: But if the written law, as you maintain, is not good, wherefore did Moses say? “Keep my laws, and judgments, which if a man does, he shall live in them.”
CHRIST: Indeed it is good and natural, and [so is] the written law, as we have said before; but the Sun of justice having risen, these, being extinguished, have grown dim. For this reason Moses did not say: Keep this perennial law of yours, but
he spoke of the necessity of a prophecy given by the impious rulers. That this is so evident appears from what follows.
Hear, O heavens, and perceive with your ears, O earth. God calls upon creation as a witness, for he was about to bring an enormous and unheard-of charge against the Jews: For the Lord has spoken: I have raised and exalted sons; but they have despised me, by these mandates, and he adds their defection: The ox has known his owner, and the donkey the crib of its master: but Israel has not known me, and my people have not understood; they are more stupid and dull than brute beasts. Woe to a sinful nation, a people heavy with iniquity, a wicked seed, criminal children, the prophet applied a reproach worthy of their impiety and insolence. You have forsaken the Lord, namely the Father, and you have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger; you have irritated his only-begotten Son: by irritation, indeed, he signifies the torture of an undefiled body. What more can you add? They have nothing they can designate more gravely against Christ.
Do you see how Moses also revealed the abrogation of the law? For if the law were not to be abrogated, there would be no need for another legislator, and Moses would have said: This law shall be immovable for all eternity, just as Jeremiah predicted concerning the spiritual, that is, the evangelical: This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law which is for eternity. And the same man says of it: Behold the days are coming, says the Lord: and I will raise up for David a just sprout: and a just King shall reign in eternity. Malachi: The Sun of justice shall rise for you who fear my name. Isaiah: Behold, the Lord our God will render judgment. And again: The Lord God will take away the tear from every face, and he will take away the reproach of his people from the whole earth.
Therefore, because the Sun of justice has risen, we no longer need the precepts of the law. Wherefore both the sacred law and the prophets are good, and are like a light, as we have now said. For the Word of God and the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets. But by these aids men could not find the path of justice. For just as the stars and the moon neither have the splendor of the morning star, nor do they shine through the whole night, but now appear, now are hidden; but when the sun has risen, no one remains in darkness, unless he is blind and cannot see, so also the congregation which is reckoned by the name of Christ, having attained the divine light, continually grows accustomed to the Sun of justice, nor does anyone dwell in the darkness of ignorance of God who does not voluntarily separate himself from it.
CHAPTER LI. The first chapter of Isaiah is elegantly retorted against the Jews and explained.
That it also seemed good to the Divine Will that the law be abrogated, Isaiah declares, saying: The vision of Isaiah, son of Amos, which he saw over Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. The prophet makes mention of the pious kings, showing that the punishment was to be inflicted by divine decree not on account of any legal transgression, but on account of the slaughter of Christ: for if it were on account of their crimes, it was necessary for a prophecy to have been issued by the impious rulers. That this is so true is apparent from what follows.
Hear, O heavens, and perceive with your ears, O earth. God calls upon creation as witness, since He was about to bring an enormous and unheard-of crime against the Jews: For the Lord has spoken: I have reared and exalted sons; but they have despised me, by these dictates, and he adds their defection: The ox has known its owner, and the ass the manger of its master: but Israel has not known me, and my people have not understood; they are more stupid and dull than the brute beasts. Woe to the sinful nation, to the people burdened with iniquity, to the wicked seed, to the criminal children, the prophet applied a reproach worthy of their impiety and insolence. You have forsaken the Lord, A namely the Father, and you have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger; you have irritated His only-begotten Son: by irritation indeed, he signifies the punishment of an undefiled body. What more could you add? They do not have anything which they might designate as graver against Christ.
Do you see how Moses also B revealed the abrogation of the law? For if the law were not to be abrogated, there would be no need for another legislator, and Moses would have said: This law is to be for all eternity, just as Jeremiah predicted concerning the spiritual, that is, the evangelical law: This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law which is for all eternity. And the same man concerning the same thing: Behold the days are coming, says the Lord: and I will raise up to David a just seed: and a just King shall reign for all eternity. Malachi: The Sun of justice shall rise for you who fear my name. Isaiah: Behold, the Lord our God will return judgment. And again: The Lord God will take away the tear from every face, and he will take away the reproach of his people from the universal earth.
Therefore, the Sun of justice having risen, we no longer need the precepts C of the law. Wherefore both the sacred law and the prophets are good, and they are like a light, as we have now said. For the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit, spoke through the prophets. But by these supports men could not find the way of justice. For just as the star and the moon neither have the splendor of the morning star, nor do they shine through the whole night, but now they appear, now they are hidden; but when the sun has risen, no one remains in the shadows, unless he who is dim-sighted and blind, so also the assembly which is reckoned by the name of Christ, having attained divine light, continually grows accustomed to the Sun of justice, nor does any one dwell in the darkness of ignorance of God, who does not voluntarily separate himself.
CHAPTER LI. The first chapter of Isaiah is elegantly retorted D and explained against the Jews.
Every head is languid, and every heart is grieving. Once, the prophet David interpreted this in this sense: Their pain will be turned upon their own head, and their iniquity will descend upon their crown; as if he said: Whatever you may plot, it will fall to the perdition of your own head, and your injustice will be rolled back upon your own crown. There is in them neither wound, nor bruise. There is no plaster to apply, nor oil, nor bandages. The whole body, he says, is a wound, and therefore incurable. For what reason, O prophet? Because they have slain my Son, whom I chose as most dear to my soul. Therefore behold both the divine punishment and that which follows immediately: Your land is desert, your cities are burned with fire; your region is devoured by strangers before you, and it shall be desolate as in a hostile devastation. And the daughter of Sion shall be left as a shade in a vineyard, and as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, and as a city which is devastated. And unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom, and we would have been similar to Gomorrah. But although God made a remnant of seed for the Israelites, yet they shall not escape being condemned by the Sodomites and Gomorrahites. And consistent with that sentence is that of my Savior, to Bethsaida: It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for you. And that this is true is made manifest by the prophetic oracles; for he adds: Hear the word of the Lord, you princes of Sodom, perceive with your ears the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the Lord? I do not want the blood of bulls and goats; nor should you come, so that you may appear to me. Do you see how he makes all Judea unhappy with the names of Sodom and Gomorrah? For where were sacrifices and libations offered to God in the manner of Sodom and Gomorrah? Who has sought these from your hands? As if he were to say:
A “You shall not add to trample my courts: for you wickedly ascend them. If you offer fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to me” (Isa. 1, 13). Behold, God, who had but recently ordained the law, now preordains its abrogation. For incense, which used to be brought forward for a pleasant odor, is regarded by God not only as a vain offering, but even as something he abhors: “New moon, and Sabbath, and other festivals I will not endure. Since you shall have reveled in my own co-natural Son, for this reason I denounce the ending of these things, henceforth to approve of them no more. Your fasts, and leisure, and feast days my soul hates” (Isa. 1, 14). Why so, O prophet? Because they hated the entry of the only-begotten Son of God into Jerusalem as he sat upon a foal, in which festival they were rather taught by divine revelation to rejoice; for the prophet says: “Exult greatly, daughter of Zion; shout, daughter of Jerusalem. Behold your King comes to you, meek, riding upon an ass, and upon a foal, the son of an ass” (Zach. 9, 9; Matth. 21, 5).
“You have become a satiety to me” (Isa. 1, 14). For just as surplus food in the body, once satiety has taken hold, is ejected from the stomach onto the ground through vomiting, so indeed shall you, since you have become a satiety to me, be cast out of my hands. “I will not forgive your sins any longer. When you stretch out your hands, I will turn my eyes away from you; and when you have multiplied prayer, I will not hear; for your hands are full of blood” (Isa. 1, 15). Fasts, and Sabbaths, and Passovers are hereafter in vain B if you observe them, not only because of the prophets, but also because of the most audacious murder of the most beloved and dearest Son. Therefore, no path of salvation remains, nor is there any protection in the law; but if you wish to become heirs of that former happiness: “Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your thoughts from my eyes” (Isa. 1, 16). Do not imagine that you can worship me, the Lawgiver, under the cloak of the law. “Learn to do good” (Isa. 1, 17), you who have never done good since the time of Moses until now. “Seek judgment” (Isa. 1, 17). Do not, since you are bloodthirsty in your dispositions, direct toward the Son, who is most beloved to my soul, what you directed against the prophets, but remember the words of Israel, your forefather: “Simon and Levi, brothers, have consummated iniquity; let not my soul come into their counsel, and in their congregation let not my vitals contend, because in their fury they killed men” (namely, the prophets) “and in their desire they hamstrung a bull” (that is, God and man, Jesus) (Gen. 49, 5-6). And Jacob, having summoned his sons, says: “Gather together;” (Gen. 49, 1) not that I may rebuke you for your crimes, but “that I may declare what shall come to pass for you in the last days” (Gen. 49, 1). And after recounting those things which the Jews dared against Christ, he adds: “He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in C the blood of a grape” (Gen. 49, 11), that is, his body through slaughter on the gibbet, and through blood. Therefore, the prophecy of Israel was fulfilled at the end. By whom? By the pontiffs and priests, those of whom the former drew their origin from Simeon, the others from the tribe of Levi. Who, finally, also killed the prophets—men, that is—and unstrung Christ like a bull; that is, they delivered the assumed body to death. But “The Lord was awakened as one sleeping, as a mighty man recovering from wine” (Ps. 77, 65); his kingdom, according to Jeremiah, will be overturned by no memory.
JUD. But does he not say: “They shall consummate iniquity,” but: “They have consummated”?
CHRIST. Have I not told you, since you are always stuck fast in the letter, that you never penetrate to the mind? Surely, since the prophets saw what was to happen, not as future things, but as present ones, they foretold future events as if they were occurring. Thus he also said of Judah: “A lion’s whelp is Judah; from the germ, my son, you have ascended” (Gen. 49, 9); and: “You shall not ascend” (Gen. 49, 4), foreseeing future things as present. But I know not how the most pleasant prophecy of Israel has distracted us to this disputation; wherefore let us repeat Isaiah: “Succor the oppressed” (Isa. 1, 17); who, betrayed by a disciple, neither committed a crime, nor was guile found in his mouth. And Moses also taught you this beforehand, if indeed he cries: “Cursed is he who accepts gifts, to strike the soul of innocent blood” (Deut. 27, 25). “Judge for the orphan,” who had no father on earth. “Defend the widow” (Isa. 1, 17). The wife believed to be the spouse of Joseph. “And come, let us dispute, says the Lord” (Isa. 1, 18). And yet, there is no disputing at the second advent of Christ. What, therefore, is this: Let us dispute? Let each one’s conscience reveal him, and let him who runs excellently press forward; he who has sinned, let him show amendment through repentance. For when these things are completed: “If your sins are as scarlet, they shall be whitened as snow; and if they are red as a worm, they shall be as white wool” (Isa. 1, 18). Just as if he were to say: But if you are crimsoned by sin, and still blood-stained, be whitened like snow; but if you are like purple, and full of blood, surpass the whiteness of wool. Also regarding the new covenant: “Thus says the Lord: Those serving D me shall be called by a new name, which shall be blessed upon the earth” (Isa. 65, 15-16); for they shall bless the true God; and those who swear upon the earth, shall swear by the true God; for they shall forget the former tribulation (namely, the veneration of idols). And who, further, murmurs against the Supreme? As for the Gentiles, this is the same one’s sentence: “Open the gates, and let the just nation enter, keeping the truth” (Isa. 26, 2), apprehending justice, loving peace, because it has hoped in you, O Lord. Furthermore, to hate God after the advent of Christ...
A and being addicted to Jewish rites, he himself bears witness: “...and you do not hear.” Then he adds on behalf of God: “What if you do not fear me, who have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, an everlasting ordinance which it shall not pass? These and these things shall be suffered by you.” And likewise through Isaiah, God says: “This people approaches with its mouth, and with its lips it glorifies me; but their heart is far from me. (But in vain do they worship me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men) and they feared me with the commandments of men and doctrines. Therefore, behold I will proceed to transplant this people, and I will transplant them: and I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will hide the prudence of the prudent.” Because the people is disobedient, lying children, B who do not want to hear the law of God: who say to the prophets: “Do not announce to us what is right; but speak to us things that are pleasing, see errors for us.” God threatens the same people through Hosea: “I will spread my net over them: I will drag them down like a bird of the sky, I will strike them, I will chastise them in the hearing of their tribulation. Woe to them because they have departed from me, they are cowardly, because they have acted impiously against me: and I redeemed them: and they have spoken lies against me: and their hearts have not cried out to me.” And again through Jeremiah: “They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug cisterns for themselves.” And these are the words of Isaiah concerning the law: “In that day the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be C sevenfold in the day, when the Lord will have healed the wound of his people, and will cure the pain of its blow. Behold the name of the Lord comes after a time and his Spirit as water dragging in a valley.”
Since therefore Jewish libations and sacrifices are detestable to God the Almighty, among which nations is God celebrated from the rising of the sun to the setting, and from whom is incense offered to this name? Without doubt, from us Christians. But concerning the refractory and uncircumcised Jews, who wish to maintain rites and Sabbaths even after the advent of Christ, hear what the same Isaiah writes: “Woe to you who draw iniquity in cords of vanity, and sin as if it were a wagon rope. You who say: Let it hasten, and let his work come quickly, that we may see: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, and we shall know it. Woe to you who call evil good, and good evil: putting darkness as light, and light as darkness: putting D bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” The same again: “My people has become captive: because they did not know the Lord.” He did not say that they did not know “me”; but that they did not know “the Lord,” that is, the Only-begotten of God. And again: “Their root shall be as down: and their sprout shall ascend like dust. For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have blasphemed the word of the Holy One of Israel.”
Do you see how the prophet describes the anger partly of the Father, and partly of the Son? For he calls the Lord of hosts the Father, and he adds the cause of the anger, since they refused to follow the law given by Moses. But by the Lord of the Israelites, God, he signifies the Son, saying: “But they have angered the word of the Lord.” They have detested the doctrine and the sacred Gospel of Christ: “Therefore the fury of the Lord is kindled against his people.” The Father is incensed because the Son is not honored, and thus not even he himself is honored; for whoever does not honor the Son, it is necessary that he not honor the Father. “And he stretched out his hand over him, and struck him.” The same concerning the Jews alienated from the faith: “Hear, you who hear, and do not understand; and see the vision, and do not know. For the heart of this people has grown fat: they have heard heavily with their ears: and they have closed their eyes, lest perhaps they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and I should heal them.” Moses says: “A foolish and unwise people.” Jeremiah: “Foolish people, who do not have a heart: who having eyes, do not see: and having ears, and do not hear.”
Indeed, the Law is good; but the discipline of Christ is without comparison better. You should not, however, think that because they heard of a sevenfold future light of the sun, the discipline of Christ does not surpass the law by sevenfold. But truly, Isaiah, since he was under the law, and wished to keep the law (moreover, the number seven is august among those under the law), he graced the future sevenfold light of the sun with that sevenfold number. Certainly, he himself is the author of the saying that the law would by no means last after the advent of Christ: “Behold, all who fight against you shall be confounded and ashamed, they shall go away with ignominy,” namely those who do not adhere to the Gospel of Christ, but to the Mosaic law, which was a certain shadow of the true grace. And that what we say is not foreign, Isaiah, as we showed before, declares: “Who is among you that fears the Lord? Let him hear the voice of his servant.” Therefore, since it is the will of God that all should hear the voice of his Son, deservedly those who do not hear him, and repel him, shall go away ignominious.
CHAPTER LIII.
Vaticinia concerning the Nativity of Christ.Again, through the same, God says: “Listen to me, my people, and kings, attend to me with your ears.”
For the law shall go forth from me, and my judgment for a light of the nations. My justice draweth near quickly: and my salvation shall go forth like light; and in mine arm the nations shall hope. A Micah, concerning the new covenant—the Gospel of Christ, I say—saith: “And it shall come to pass in the last of days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills: and peoples shall flow unto it, and many nations shall hasten and say: Come, let us ascend to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob.” Where he calls the Theotokos the “mountain of the Lord,” and Bethlehem the “house of the God of Jacob.” For the Evangelist Luke also teacheth this in these words: “And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his espoused wife.”
But let us continue to revisit the written prophecies: “Let us ascend,” I say, “to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” Ways and paths comprise the holy Gospel. “For the law shall go forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Behold another law, not from Sinai, as the Mosaic was, but one that has gone forth from Jerusalem; since the former is old, and ancient Micah is later than that older one; this present one is recent and subsequent to Micah, concerning which law and lawgiver Moses clearly proclaims: “The Lord will raise up unto thee a prophet like unto me,” that is to say, another lawgiver. “And whatsoever he shall say, him shall ye hear.” And Jeremiah: “All shall know me, from the least of them even to the greatest: therefore no man shall teach his neighbor any more, saying: Know the Lord.” To which Isaiah aptly consonantly replies: “All shall be taught of God.” And David: “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: as in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the desert; where your fathers tempted me.” And again: “How sweet are thy words unto my throat, more than honey to my mouth!” And in another place: “The words of the Lord are chaste words: as silver tried by the fire, purified seven times from the earth,” B that is, such as surpass the Mosaic law, just as Moses himself confirms on God's authority: “And whosoever will not hearken to his words, which he shall speak in my name, I will revenge it.” And through Isaiah, God says: “Go, get thee in to him that dwelleth in the tabernacle, to Sobnas, who is over the temple, and say to him: What hast thou here? because thou hast hewed thee out a sepulcher here, thou hast hewed out a memorial carefully in the high place, a tabernacle for thyself in a rock? Behold the Lord of Sabaoth will cause a man to be taken away, and will crush him, and will take away thy robe, and thy diadem, and thy glorious crown: and will cast thee into a large and immense region; and there thou shalt die: and he will cast thy best chariot into ignominy, and the house of thy prince into trampling,” and thou shalt be taken away from thy stewardship and from thy rank. For Sobnas is the same as if you were to say: “Depart hence.”
Furthermore, Isaiah writes concerning the new covenant of Christ: “And it shall come to pass in that day: I will call my servant Eliacim, the son of Helcias, and I will clothe him with thy robe, and I will strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will give thy power into his hand: and he shall be as a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Juda. And I will give him the glory of David, and he shall rule, and there shall be none to contradict. And I will set him as a prince in a faithful place: and he shall be upon the throne of the glory of his father's house; and there shall be hangings upon him in that day.” C Neither does he announce otherwise concerning the new Church from God: “I will extend the place of thy tent, and I will consolidate thy stakes; I will extend to the right hand and to the left, and thy seed shall inherit the nations.”
And concerning the new Jerusalem: “Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the peoples: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the nations shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see all those gathered together; thy sons shall come from afar, and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.” And David concerning the Church of Christ: “Hear, O daughter, and see and incline thy ear: and forget thy people,” that is, thy impious ancestors, “and thy father's house,” that is, forget the burnt offerings and the altars; for if thou shalt do these things, “The king shall desire thy beauty: for he is the Lord thy God; and thou shalt adore him.” And that he might show more clearly that he speaks of the Church of the nations, he adds: “And the daughters of Tyre with gifts,” for Tyre is the seat of the nations. The same again: “Praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people,” D that is, all together, Jew, Greek, but all nations entirely: since there is no longer circumcision or uncircumcision, no slavery or freedom. “For his mercy is confirmed upon us; for all things are of Christ, and in all things is Christ; and the truth of the Lord remaineth for ever.” He calls Christ the truth of God, as true God from true God, just as Christ himself confirms concerning himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” And concerning this, Isaiah says again to the new Sion: “Behold I will send into the foundations of Sion a stone proved, a corner stone, precious: and he that believeth in him shall not be confounded” for ever. The same to the same: “Behold I will prepare thy carbuncle stone, and thy foundations a sapphire: and I will set thy bulwarks a jasper: and thy gates stones of crystal: and all thy circuit a wall of choice stones, and all thy sons...
A be disciples of God: and in great peace shall thy children be. And as for what thou regardest in justice thou shalt be built, depart from the iniquitous.»
Do you see how the prophet signifies the Church of the Gentiles? For when he admonishes Jerusalem, he bids her abstain from wickedness, hinting at the calamities and slaughter of the Jews, which awaited them because they did not abstain from sins: «And terror shall not draw near thee,» that is, he who abstains from sins shall walk exempt from terror. «Behold, proselytes shall approach unto thee through me;» through me, says Christ, the nations and those who speak in diverse tongues shall come unto thee. «And they shall be thy colonists, and shall flee unto thee.» For in the time of the Lord’s retribution, all the nations having set out for Jerusalem, and having prayed, return again even today. But this stone shall be for the Gentiles a resurrection, and for the Jews a ruin: for in the mind of the prophet, the one and same stone shall be a stumbling-block and a rock of scandal.
What, then, will the wretched ones say, when they shall behold the glorious Christ coming from the heavens, and shall hear Him in supreme majesty speaking to those who embraced Him as the majestic and cornerstone? «Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.» But to those on the left, who struck against that stone and were offended, will He say: «Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels.» How then will the penitents, made so by the anguish of their spirit, groan, and again and again repeat: «This is he, whom once we held B in derision, and as a likeness of reproach. We, the senseless, esteemed his way as insanity and his end as without honor. Behold how he is counted among the sons of God, and his lot is among the saints! Therefore we have wandered from the way of truth, and the light of justice has not shone upon us. We have grown weary in the way of iniquity and perdition; but the way of the Lord we have ignored.» But then their weeping shall be useless. For the Bridegroom having entered the bridal chamber, and all the guests rejoicing with him, the doors of the chamber shall be shut henceforth, as once those of paradise were guarded by the flaming sword. Ah, how often will the miserable ones cry out with tears: «Lord, Lord, open to us;» since indeed Thou art flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones, who indeed wast born from our ancestors. But the King, who is also God, shall address them: «Amen I say to you, I know you not.» — «Depart from me, you who work iniquity.» For I have testified to you before: «Whoever shall deny me before men, I also will deny him before my Father, who is in heaven.» And these things, indeed, are so.
Furthermore, the first book of Kings says: «There came a man of God to Eli the priest, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Have I not clearly revealed myself to the house of thy father? And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel for me to be priest, that he might ascend to my altar, and might offer incense to me, and bear the ephod before me? And I gave to the house of thy father all things which are C fire of my incense, and for my sacrifice with a shameless eye? And thou hast glorified thy sons above me, to bless me from the beginning of every sacrifice of Israel in my sight? On account of this, thus saith the Lord God of Israel: I said, thy house and the house of thy father shall walk before me forever. And now saith the Lord: By no means: since I will glorify those who glorify me, and he who despises me shall be deprived of honor. Behold the days are coming, and I will exterminate thy seed, and the seed of thy father's house, and there shall not be for thee an old man in my house all the days. And I will exterminate the men from my altar, that their eyes may fail, and their soul may melt away. And everyone who shall remain of thy house shall fall by the sword of men. And this shall be to thee a sign, that it shall come upon thy two sons, Ophni and Phinees: in one day shall they both die.»
Juda. Not against any priest whatever of the Israelite race, but against Eli alone, does this edict seek.
Christ. Not in the least. You understand the Holy Scriptures poorly. For if it were seeking only against Eli; it should have been said: «I will exterminate thy seed.» But now it adds: «And the seed of thy father's house:» undoubtedly noting the father of the house of Eli. Therefore the man of God had predicted: «I chose the house of thy father out of all the tribes of Israel for me to be priest.» Therefore, because of the choosing, also the edict was issued; since it adds: «I will exterminate the seed of the house of my father, and thou shalt not be a prophet in my house all the days.» By which sentence he signifies the total abrogation of the priests; and foreseeing this, David also says: «In the Churches bless ye God the Lord.» D For in the Mosaic law, there was no priest outside the temple in Jerusalem, no pontiff, no sacrifice, no incense, no libation, and even those exiled in Babylon considered it a point of religion to offer songs to God in a strange land. But now from the rising to the setting, from the north and from the sea, the Church has been gathered and established. For everywhere temples, patriarchs, pontiffs, priests and Levites are abundant: throughout all villages and cities, you may see the unbloody host being sacrificed, and the name of God being praised and celebrated over the whole world.
CHAPTER LIV.
Prophecies concerning the rejected Jewish populace, and the calling of the Gentiles.Indeed God says through Jeremiah: «I will give you pastors according to my heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.» And through Isaiah: «I will place thy princes in peace, and thy bishops in justice.» And again concerning the believing Jews: «Your soul shall live in good things, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant, the holy Davidic things.» The same again: «Seek the Lord, and when ye have found him, call upon him; because he will abundantly remit your sins. For neither are…
my thoughts, like your thoughts; nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. But as the heaven is distant from the earth, so is my way distant from your ways, and my thoughts from your hearts. And again: "Thus says the Lord: Keep judgment, and do righteousness, for my salvation is near. My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples," A altogether alluding to the temple of Solomon. But where is that temple now today? Where are the pontiffs? Where are the priests? Where are those who may anoint and inaugurate the priests? Where is the horn of oil? What Mosaic law allowed the profane to be consecrated as priests, illegitimately gathered in common houses outside the Jerusalem temple? Behold, you have the proofs of a rejected priesthood. Wherefore, if there is no priest, then all Jews are adulterers, and are born of adultery; thus all are bastards, and a bastard according to the law of Moses is not admitted to the priesthood. And otherwise, a priest is strictly so called from performing sacred rites, that is, from sacrificing. If, then, there are no sacrificial victims or sacred rites, there is not even a priest, unless one who claims to be called a priest falsely. Therefore, if God did not spare Uzziah, even though he was anointed king, when he handled the censer B—simply because he was not of the priestly order—but struck him with leprosy, and curtailed his prophecies while he still lived; what and how great are the evils that await those who, bereft of sacred rites, invade sacred things, and start the celebration of the Pasch and festivals outside the Jerusalem temple, meanwhile boasting (if you please) that they observe the law?
Concerning the abrogation of the law, God warned the prophet Hosea to this effect: "Go, take for yourself a wife of harlotries; and make for yourself children of harlotries, for the harlot will commit harlotry" (the Synagogue). And he went, and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim: and she conceived, and bore him a son: and the Lord said to him: Call his name Jezreel: for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Judah, and I will make the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease: and I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. But Jezreel is returned as an avenger. "And she conceived again, and bore a daughter, and he said to her: Call her name Without mercy: for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will oppose them." And she weaned her, who was Without mercy; and she conceived again and bore a son. And God said: Call his name Not my people; for you are not my people, and I will not be yours (God). The same concerning the Synagogue: "Judge your mother, judge: for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband." And not a few other things under the persona of an angry God does the prophet denounce, such as this C: "I will not deliver her from my hand: and I will make all her joy to cease, her solemnity, her new moon, her Sabbath, and all her festive seasons: and I will visit upon her the days of Baalim."
And concerning the incredulous Jews, Christ: "I will cast my net over them: as the birds of the air, I will draw them down: I will rebuke them in the hearing of their tribulation. Woe to them, for they have fallen back from me. They are timorous, for they have dealt impiously against me. But I have redeemed them: they indeed have spoken lies against me: and their hearts have not cried out to me; but they thought evil against me: therefore they shall be delivered among the gentiles." Amos threatens these things: "Behold, I will send, and I will shake the house of Israel among all nations, as wheat is shaken in a sieve: and not a pebble shall fall upon the earth. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword." David’s sentiment also is this: "Your priests shall be clothed with justice, and your holy ones shall exult." Which he said concerning the Church of the gentiles, as being future. For if it were concerning the Synagogue: "They are clothed, and exult," it would have been necessary to say this.
Now, truly, where is the divine service and proof of the Jews now? Since in Deuteronomy, God commanded Moses: "You shall not make an altar in every place, nor offer sacrifices; but in the place which the Lord shall choose."
JUD. We admit that the priesthood as well as the kingdom has been taken from us, ever since the time that we were suppressed by such evils by Titus, prince of the Romans; and it is entirely possible that we, the guardians of the law, are being deceived, lest we be disturbed from the prerogative of honor. But we beseech you, explain to us the sufferings of Christ, and the prophets who prophesy concerning these things, and concerning his resurrection.
CAPUT LV.
Prophecies concerning Christ's death and resurrection.CHRIST. It must be known first, as We have often said, that the divine nature could not see its own creation oppressed by the tyranny of the devil; therefore it seemed good to the Father that His only-begotten Son should take to Himself a soul and body from the ever-Virgin Mary, and that He should become perfect man, immutable and unconfused, without sin, not losing what He was (namely, immutable), but assuming what He was not (insofar as He was human), by which He might be able to die according to our nature, and through His D ineffable and incomprehensible divinity, quicken all, and absolve them from the devil's bonds. For both the living, through His birth from the Virgin, were not only liberated from the scroll of sin, but were also adopted, and the souls of the dead, who were held in the underworld, through His resurrection, having escaped from the hands of the devil, obtained the heavenly kingdom. For as there are two births, so the salvation of two, I say, the living and the dead, was procured. This was the necessity of the passion; for if the passion had not been, death would not have followed, which if it had not happened, all humanity could not have been torn from the devil's power. Since, just as sin upon the ancient Adam was justly...
A admitted, the certificate of debt was dissolved. Therefore, that benign God, always solicitous for the salvation of men, not only allowed the eternal generation of the Only-Begotten Son from the womb before Lucifer to be predicted and proclaimed through the prophets, but also how, by assuming a body from the ever-Virgin Mary, He united two natures, the miracles, the illustrious entry and arrival in Jerusalem upon the foal of an ass, the betrayal, the sufferings, the cross, the burial, the resurrection, the destruction of hell, the demise of death, the ascension into heaven, and finally the seating at the right hand; so that, seeing all these things fulfilled in Him, you might know Him to be the only-begotten Son of God, who has already come, and who will gloriously return again, in the name of God—that is, the Father—as judge of the living and the dead, the same Lord and all-powerful One, and King, and God, whose divinity and kingdom know no end.
Therefore, let us bring into our midst the witnesses of these things, the prophets. Regarding the immense miracles of Christ, Isaiah cries out as if in passing: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear: then the lame man shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be opened.” “Then,” he says, when? When, as the words of David convey: “Truth shall have sprung out of the earth, and justice shall have looked down from heaven”; namely, the God-man Jesus, as in another place the same one predicts: “In his days shall justice arise, and abundance of peace.” Therefore, since by the judgment of David, God’s C justice, His only-begotten Son, exists from heaven, then also “Truth shall spring out of the earth,” that is, the flesh united to the divinity in the same hypostasis, so that all the predictions of the prophets might be brought to light, having been certainly and clearly completed and perfected. For as, when this visible Day-star has risen, all things hidden in darkness are detected, so with the Sun of justice having descended from heaven, all those wrapped and knotted sayings of the prophets were illuminated, and have accepted the state belonging to the aforementioned truth (44).
David goes so far as to say in these words: “For the Lord will give goodness.” Moreover, the Lord’s goodness is altogether the only-begotten Son of the eternal Father: “and our earth shall give her fruit.” The body assumed by the Son from the muddy and earthly nature shall yield fruit, brilliant miracles: “Justice shall walk before him,” that is, His immense and greater-than-opinion D humanity, “and He shall set His steps in the way.” You see the one person in two natures? By “truth and justice,” the prophet, signifying human and divine nature at once, did not say: “He shall set the steps of *them* in the way,” namely, of the miracles, but in one person, “His steps.”
The same one again: “He sent His Word, and healed them: and delivered them from their destructions.” But Isaiah cries out: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me. To preach to the meek he hath sent me, to heal the contrite of heart, to preach deliverance to the captives, and sight to the blind.” Likewise concerning the apostles: “In those days, in which ten men out of all languages of the nations shall take hold of the skirt of one that is a Jew, saying: We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you.” And who is this man that is a Jew, if not the God-man Jesus? But the ten men are the divine apostles and disciples.
JUD. And why did He not say: Ten men from the tribes of Israel? but: “out of all languages of the nations?” For all the apostles were from the tribes of the Jews.
CHRIST. Surely the foreknowing prophet, so that with the Synagogue of the Jews neglected, they might carry the heralds to all B nations, preferred this work alone to the tribe. For just as he who raises up seed to his brother does not count the offspring as his own: for he does not establish the lineage for himself, but for his brother before him, even if the offspring be not born of him: so also the prophet in the apostles, regarding that origin from the Jews as naught, embraced rather their fatherhood toward the nations, so to speak, as illustrious. Indeed, writing to the Corinthians, Paul cries out: “For in Christ Jesus by the gospel I have begotten you. I beseech you therefore, be ye followers of me.” Then the prophet did not ignore that it would be, that by the coming and inspiration of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, the apostles, suddenly taught all the languages of all nations and the discipline, would instruct all nations in their own tongues.
JUD. But why did he not say twelve, but “ten?” Since we have learned that the apostles of Christ are twelve, according to the number of the patriarchs.
CHRIST. Rightly, and as is fitting, you have hesitated. But you must hold it as explored: that Isaiah (45) did not reveal in this prophecy of his that the apostles were sprung from the tribe of Benjamin and Dan. And indeed he passed over the tribe of Benjamin in silence, because my Savior, living among us in the flesh, did not look upon that great Paul, speaking for himself. But the tribe of Dan he passed over in silence, on account of Judas the traitor, who was to be born from it, as the mind seeing God long ago prophesied in this sense: “Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a cerastes in the path, biting the horse's heels;” by that type, hinting to us of the corporal and divine-affected body in the recent tomb of Joseph, awaiting the salvation of the Lord; surely, the three-day resurrection.
And that the prophets foretold all the functions accomplished by Christ, the advent of my Savior to Jerusalem shows, of which the prince of all Israel says: “Tying his foal to the vineyard, and to the vine the foal of his ass.” Do you see how the prophet signifies the propagation of the nations with the law abrogated? For when he says, “to the vine the foal of his ass,”
or rather to the branches of the vine, he designates an eternal, sublime, and world-wide proclamation, since that conversion of the world is like the tendrils or branches of a vine. And concerning these matters, the Savior, also looking towards the Synagogue, which he compared to an ass, testifies by way of similitude: “A man planted a vineyard,” and the things that follow. Speaking to the foal, however, which is the new people, he says: “I am the vine, you are the branches; my Father is the husbandman.” That this is so very true, the response of your ancestors demonstrates. For when asked by God: “When the Lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those husbandmen? They say to him: He will miserably destroy the wicked, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruit in due seasons.” These are also the words of Zephaniah: “Rejoice, O daughter of Sion; proclaim, O daughter of Jerusalem, exult and be glad with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your iniquities, he has redeemed you from the hand of your enemies, the Lord shall reign in the midst of you.”
CHAPTER LVI. The second Psalm is expounded.
But since, by using prophetic sentences, we have shown that he who sits upon the foal of an ass is both the Son of God, and the true God, and the King of the whole universe, come, let us also contemplate the sufferings of Christ, and the wicked counsels against him, equally proven by the writings of the prophets, starting from David. Therefore, foreseeing the future as if it were present, the Prophet says: “Why have the nations raged; and the peoples (calling the nations the Romans, and the peoples, the tribes of the Jews) meditated vain things?” A Completely in vain, he says, do they tumultuously gather and think against Christ. “The kings of the earth stood up (namely, Pilate and Herod), and the princes met together in one; the high priests and the elders, likewise, and at the same time, with the same mind and counsel ‘against the Lord and against his Christ,’” to put him to death. “Let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast away their yoke from us”; David speaks in agreement with the Mosaic sayings; for just as he, discoursing on the creation, signifies the one will of the Holy Trinity, saying: “Let us make man to our image and likeness,” so also here, teaching that the thoughts and tumults of the nations and peoples, the standing kings, and the meeting of the dignitaries, are all in agreement, he says: “Let us break their bonds asunder, and let us cast away their yoke from us.” And that it might be clearer, B and he might explain what he says more openly, he adds: “He who dwells in heaven,” the Father, that is to say, “shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them”; namely the Son, who stood among them like one condemned, though he was by no means an exile from the Father’s bosom. “Then shall he speak to them in his anger and trouble them in his rage.” When then? When the Judge shall arrive, accompanied by all the heavenly hosts, to judge the living and the dead. “But I am appointed King by him”; the discourse is worthy of God, and royal, and hints at the perpetual kingdom of Christ even as man; for he says: “The Lord shall reign for ever, thy God, O Sion. Upon his holy mountain Sion.” By holy mountain, understand here the Virgin and Mother of God. C For as God, descending upon Sinai, was seen by Moses, so He, incarnate from the Virgin, conversed with man; Zephaniah adds: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, proclaim, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy King comes to thee, the just and savior, he himself is meek, and riding upon an ass, and a young foal.” And these things, indeed, Zephaniah says regarding Jerusalem, but regarding the Son of David: “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a rod of direction is the rod of thy kingdom.” And to the children: “Praise the Lord, ye children.” But the children: “Hosanna to the Son of David: blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.” From there the kingly Psalmist again to the Lord: “Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise.” The Lord to the people: “Suffer the little children, and do not forbid them to come to me.” D Since they followed the voice of Elizabeth; for she says: “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” These, born of her, acclaim: “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.” O the ingratitude of parents! O the gratitude of children! The former were spreading their garments under him: the parents were dividing his garments. The former were chanting “Hosanna”; the latter were crying out “Crucify him.” The age of the infant is wise; and they who maintained children are foolish, were themselves becoming foolish. And it was then a strange spectacle, and one abhorrent to nature, to see sucklings, infants carried in the arms of their mothers, on one side playing with a little hand, on the other extending palm branches to God born of the Virgin; and those who were pulling at maternal milk, pouring forth with innocent mouth the Dominical precept; before they could speak words, clearly acclaiming to God the Word: “Hosanna in the highest,” as if to say, Save us, who dwell in the heights, and look upon lowly things, for he who was unseeable became seeable: “Preaching the precept of the Lord,” that is, an interpreter, as the prophets of old foresaw through the Father’s benefit: “The Lord said to me,” who is my Father according to divine nature, and the same one is God according to the flesh assumed; “Thou art my Son,” the most beloved before the ages without flux, you are my Son. “Today I have begotten thee.” He whom I begot from the womb before the morning star, I willed that on this day he should come forth incarnate from the Virgin; for he was not one person and you another, but the same, one from two natures.
A "Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance." David is accustomed to refer those things which belong to the Only-Begotten to the will and power of God and the Father, lest he be thought by the unlearned to be contrary to God: "and thy possession to the ends of the earth." Those who bear thy holy name shall swear by thee. "Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron." The scepter or iron rod signifies the power of divinity. For our Savior, confirming this paternal utterance through David, says: "I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and mine know me. As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father: and I lay down my life for my sheep." B "Thou shalt break them like a potter’s vessel." By these words, he declares both the workmanship of men, which that great potter God fashioned and molded, and truly the slaughter and destruction of the Jews. So easily, he says, shalt thou shatter those who do not revere thee as Creator and God, but take thee for a mere man, denying themselves salvation, just as a potter treats the clay fashioned and formed by his own hand. For just as cattle, which follow the voice and whistle of the shepherd, and feed on green herbs, and drink the clearest waters—while those which stray from the shepherd become prey for wild beasts—so all those scattered to the ends of the earth, whoever hear the voice of my Son, shall dwell and feed in celestial and eternal abodes, and shall be nourished by tranquil streams. But those who neglect his voice, having been crushed and destroyed, shall be left to the infamous wolf, the devil. C "And now, O ye kings, understand." Having accurately set forth the power, resurrection, and kingdom of Christ, the Prophet also commands and exhorts the kings of the earth to understand these things. "Be instructed, you that judge the earth." Since you await the Judge of judges, the God of gods, your King and the Lord of the whole world, learn, all you who judge concerning earthly things and judge earthly matters, to judge and to do what is just and fair: "For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and in what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again." D "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto him with trembling." That is, if you worship God timidly and fearfully, afterwards you shall rejoice eternally with him; now sowing in tears, but then you shall reap the thousandfold ears of your fruits, to be gathered into celestial barns. "Take hold of discipline." That is, receive the divine doctrine for your profit; for he says: "And thy discipline hath corrected me unto the end: and thy discipline shall teach me." And again the LXX: "The discipline of the Lord opens my ears." And again: "Chastising, the Lord hath chastised me, and hath not delivered me to death." "Lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way." He calls the day of recompense anger; to perish from the just way is to fall and be frustrated of the assistance of the Judge’s right hand, which all the saints and just shall enjoy. "When his wrath shall be kindled in a short time,"—sudden vengeance and fury, A and he calls that horrible sentence: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels." Every one considering this even before the judgment, and overcome by his own conscience, trembles: "Blessed are all they that trust in him." The Prophet divides human nature into two ways; he condemns the obstinate, but he bestows upon the pious and those compliant to piety, incorrupt and perennial beatitude. B Salomon, publishing the wickedness of the Jews in consistency with the Father, says: "They have said, thinking within, not rightly: Let us oppress the just, because he is not profitable to us, and he is contrary to our works, and upbraids us with the sins of the law, and defames against us the sins of our discipline. He promises that he hath the knowledge of God, and calls himself the Son of God. He is become to us a manifestation of our thoughts. He is grievous to us also to behold, for his life is not like to others, and his ways are changed. We are esteemed by him as triflers, and he abstains from our ways as from filthiness, and prefers the latter end of the just, and glories that he hath God his father. Let us see then if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen to him. Let us examine him by outrages and torments, that we may know his reverence, and prove his patience. Let us condemn him to a most shameful death: for there shall be a respect had of his words. These things they thought, and were deceived: for their malice blinded them. And they knew not the sacraments of God, nor judged that thou art the only God, who hast power of life and death, and savest in the time of tribulation, and deliverest from all evil: for thou art pious and merciful, C and thou givest grace to thy saints, and in thy arm thou resistest the proud." And through Jeremy, Christ foretells: "I, as an innocent lamb led to the slaughter, did not know: for they have devised counsels against me, saying: Come, let us put wood into his bread, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, and his name shall be remembered no more." By "wood" the Prophet calls the life-giving cross; by "bread," Christ, as Christ confirms concerning himself: "I am the living bread, which came down from heaven." D David also says of the insane and those instructed by the worst counsel: "Thou shalt destroy their fruit from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men: for they have turned evils against thee, they have devised counsels which they were not able to establish: for thou shalt make them turn their back: thou shalt prepare their countenance in thy remains," that is, in the perennial and endless torments of those departing. Job also says: "God does not save the impious," the LXX adds: "because they would not know the Lord." Isaias: "Vain is the counsel of your fathers." The same again: "Woe, apostate children, saith the Lord."
A Let lying lips, which speak against the just individual with iniquity, be made mute.
Again, as if from the body to the divinity: "My exultation, deliver me from those who surround me." And [in a passage] inveighing against the Synagogue that brought infamy upon the death of Christ: "Let them be confounded and turned back together who seek my soul; let them be turned backward and put to shame who desire evils for me." He also pronounces these things against the false witnesses: "Unjust witnesses rising up, they questioned me about things I knew not; they repaid me evil for good, the sterility of my soul." And again: "Let them not rejoice over me, those who are my enemies unjustly, who hate me without cause and wink with their eyes; for to me they spoke peaceably, and in their anger they devised deceits."
Psalm XXI is elegantly explained regarding the person of Christ.
David: "Many calves have surrounded me, fat bulls have beset me." And again: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God; they are corrupt and have become abominable in their ways; they have all turned aside, they have become useless together; there is none that doeth good, not even one." And again: "My enemies have surrounded my soul; they have enclosed their fat, their mouth hath spoken pride. Casting me out, they have now surrounded me; they have set their eyes to bow down to the earth. They have taken me as a lion prepared for prey, and as a young lion dwelling in hidden places." And a little later: "They were satisfied with sons, and have left the rest to their little ones." And elsewhere: "They opened their mouth against me, as a lion ravening and roaring." B Idem from the person of Pilate: "I have hated the congregation of the malignant, and I will not sit with the impious. I will wash my hands among the innocent." And concerning the pontiffs: "In whose hands are iniquities, their right hand is filled with bribes."
Again as if in the voice of the flesh: "Do not deliver me into the hands of those who afflict me, for unjust witnesses have risen up against me." And concerning the Pharisees attempting to capture Christ: "Who speak peace with their neighbor, but evils in their hearts. Give them, O Lord, according to their works; and according to the wickedness of their inventions; according to the works of their hands render to them; give them their retribution; because they have not understood the works of the Lord, and the works of his hands." By the "deeds and works of his hands," he calls the incredible descent to us and the salvation of the whole world bestowed by his immense goodness. C The same again: "I have become a reproach above all my enemies, and to my neighbors exceedingly, and a fear to my acquaintances." Why so, O Prophet? "Because I heard the vituperation of many dwelling in a circuit; when they gathered together at the same time, they took counsel to take my soul."
Now, looking forward to the unjust death of Christ and the fraud prepared against him in vain, he writes in these words:
"Let lying lips be made mute, which speak against the just one iniquity." Again, as if from the body to the divinity: "My exultation, deliver me from those who surround me."
And what of that which you refer to? "The sinner watcheth the just one, and seeketh to put him to death: but the Lord will not leave him in his hands; nor will he condemn him when he is judged." But these things are about Christ: "Those who bless him shall inherit the land: but those who curse him shall perish." David spoke in accord with the sayings of Isaac. For he, foreseeing that Christ the expectation of the nations would arise from the root of Jacob, D thus spoke in his foreknowledge: "Cursed be he who curseth thee, and blessed be he who blesseth thee." But our David says: "Those who bless him shall inherit the land, but those who curse him shall perish." The meaning of these words is this: just as then only those born of Jacob, and not those of Esau, occupied the promised land, so now also, only those who wish well to Christ, apart from those who wish him evil, will possess the heavenly and eternal Jerusalem.
Again David: "Multiplied are those who hate me unjustly, who repay evil for good, they detract from me, because I followed goodness"; which things he says from the person of the Only-Begotten Son of God. In the same place: "They used violence, they who sought my soul: and they who sought evils for me spoke vanities, and meditated deceits all the day. But I, as a deaf man, did not hear, and as a mute man not opening his mouth: and I became as a man not hearing, and not having in his mouth reproofs." And such indeed did David proclaim regarding the silence of the suffering Christ. Now let us see the evangelist: "And Jesus, when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, answered nothing; so that the governor wondered exceedingly. Then Pilate said to him: Do you not speak to me? Jesus, however, remained silent." Isaias also agrees with David in this sentiment: "He, because of his affliction, does not open his mouth. He is led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is mute, so he does not open his mouth." The same again from the person of the Father regarding
A His immaculate passion: "Behold, my servant shall understand, and he shall be exalted, and glorified exceedingly. As many shall be astonished at thee, so shall his appearance be inglorious from men, and his glory from the sons of men. So shall many nations marvel at him, and kings shall shut their mouths: because they to whom it was not told concerning him shall see; and they who have not heard shall understand." And in another place: "The Lord gives me the tongue of discipline, that I may know when it behooves me to speak a word: he has added to me an ear to hear, and the discipline of the Lord opens my ears: and I do not refuse, neither do I contradict. I gave my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to the blows: and I did not turn away my face from the shame of spitting." David truly: "My strength has dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue has cleaved to my throat; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death." The same, as if from the body joined to the divinity: "Deliver my soul from the sword, O God, and my only one from the hand of the dog." And Isaiah: "A man placed in a plague, and knowing infirmity: for his face is turned away, despised and not esteemed. He carries our sins and sorrows for us: and we thought him to be in labor, and in a plague from God, and in affliction. But he was wounded for our sins, and became infirm for our iniquities. By his stripes we are healed." The prophet Amos says: "For silver they sold the just." Zechariah from the person of Christ: "They weighed my reward, thirty pieces of silver." And Jeremiah (as reported by the holy Matthew): "They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one who was valued, whom they valued from the sons of Israel: and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord ordained for me." David concerning the traitor: "He who ate my bread, has magnified his deceit against me." And Isaiah: "Woe to the wicked: evil things shall happen to him according to the work of his hands." And David again: "The unjust man has spoken that he may sin in himself: there is no fear of God before his eyes." Wherefore the Prophet: "Because he has acted deceitfully in his sight, that his iniquity may be found B to be hated." Indeed he exercised deceit, against such a holy institution and doctrine, and exercised hatred against virtues and miracles. He found iniquity; namely, a greedy and bloodthirsty nature. Wherefore the Prophet rightly imprecates against him: "Set a sinner over him, and let the devil stand at his right hand:" since he hates the Savior standing at his right hand. "When he is judged, let him go out condemned," since he was hateful in the assembly of the judge, for that reason let him go out judged and condemned. "And let his prayer be turned into sin," he calls the traitor's untimely repentance a prayer, such as it is in the evangelist Matthew: "Then Judas, who betrayed him, seeing that he was condemned, led by repentance, returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying: I have sinned, betraying the just blood: and departing he hanged himself." Which things all of which the Prophet, foretelling long before, adds: "Let his days be few, and another take his bishopric." Why? "Because he persecuted a man poor and needy, and pricked in heart to kill him." For indeed our Lord Jesus Christ is poor: for if he had not made our temperament (or our body) mendicant, we would never have been enriched by his divinity. Therefore, since the traitor despised being enriched by divinity, the Prophet rightly brings against him: "And he loved cursing, and it shall come to him: and he did not desire blessing, and it shall be removed from him." Thus, being abdicated from his office, and he having been cast off, Matthias having been substituted, completed the assembly of the apostles. Solomon also has this sentiment concerning the matter: "An insensate and iniquitous man walks in ways that are not good: he winks with his eyes, signifies with his foot, teaches with the nods of his fingers. A perverse heart fabricates evils. Through vicious ways, he notes the traitor’s nature; through the nod of the eyes, [his] betrayal and conspiracy to the priests; through the foot, the traitor’s speed; through the movement of the finger, his hidden craftiness. Nor indeed contented with these, the old trickster even betrayed the Lord with a fraudulent kiss, bearing witness to the Jews that the one to whom he gave a kiss, he was the man they should seize." To these the Wise Man adds: "At all times, he who is such, brings disturbances to the city." For indeed the betrayal of Judas gave immense tumult and destruction to Jerusalem. On account of this his destruction came at once, [his] severing, and incurable contrition. C And Isaiah also says: "I shall raise him up with justice as king, and all his ways shall be straight. He shall build my city, and he shall turn back the captivity of my people, not with a price, nor with gifts." And again: "The Lord of Sabaoth said: Egypt has labored, and the trade of the Ethiopians, and the Sabaeans, men of high stature, shall pass over to thee, and they shall be thy servants, and they shall follow behind thee led in chains, and they shall pass over to thee, and they shall adore thee; because God is in thee, and there is no God besides thee." Which the prophet commemorates, so that you may believe that Christ is the true God.
Chapter LVIII.
On the Sabbath of the Jews, and the Lord's Day of the Christians.
JUD. Wherefore have you given honor and grace to the Lord's day, which with us held [the status of] the Sabbath? CHRIST. Certainly that this holy Lord's day is to be honored more justly than your Sabbath, there is an abundance from which we may establish it, not only from our own sacred volumes, but from the very divine handiwork itself. For if we revere rest, how much more the beginning of worksnot that Adam is to be honored because he incurred death by violating a commandment (for that indeed is the extreme), but because he was the first created and fashioned by the hands of God. For behold, this is the divine conformation, but the other is a human transgression.
Now, by how much the divine stands in comparison preeminent over the human, and by how much the beginning is more honorable than the end (since the former is the cause of the work, while the latter is the dissolution of the things worked), by so much is the Lord's Day more illustrious and august than the Sabbath. Moreover, necessity compels the beginning to follow the end by decree, but that the end should exist without the beginning is A strange and unheard of. The Lord's Day, therefore, excels the Sabbath, and this will be clear from the things we are saying.
On the twenty-fifth of the month of Nisan (as you Hebrews call it, though to us it is March), God began the creation; on the thirtieth He completed all this universe; on the thirty-first, which is reckoned the seventh from the commencement of the work, He rested. And behold, truly, the outcome of the truth. On this day the Israelites' flight from Egypt and passage into Canaan took place; on this day occurred the allotment and entry into the promised land. On this day the Archangel Gabriel brought the words of joyful announcement to the Virgin and Theotokos, which was immediately followed by the seedless conception of Christ for our sake and His mysterious incarnation; on this day His resurrection from the dead occurred; and it is likely that on this day, too, the common resurrection of us all will take place, when Christ, having restored us to life, will once again present Himself as awesome, and will exercise incorrupt judgment, and at the same time the observers and heralds of the great mystery, the divine apostles, will sit on twelve seats to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
But that the Sabbath was to cease at some time, God revealed to your forefather Abraham in these words: "Thou therefore shall keep my covenant, and thy seed after thee, in their generations," and again: "Every male among you shall be circumcised in your generations"; and in the same place: "An infant of eight days shall be circumcised: and my covenant shall be between me and you in your generations." Do you see, along with the origin of the covenant, its termination as well? For He did not say: "This will be a sign between me and you as an everlasting covenant." Nor did He say it once, but three or four times. Whence it is evident that this judgment was not established D for another age, nor even until the end; but, "As long as it shall please my mind," that your posterity should have rulers and kings. Therefore He prophesied to Israel: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until the things that are laid up for him come; and he shall be the expectation of the nations." But when Christ came, no longer does the prescribed covenant of circumcision endure for this generation, nor the prophecy, nor the kingdom, nor the priesthood, nor the Sabbath, nor the fast, nor the offering, nor the Passover, nor the feast. Rightly, therefore, was circumcision established on the eighth day, as holy and clean; for in Leviticus the eighth is called holy and clean, designating the law of the new covenant to be performed by Christ: "Seven days shall the ox, and the beast, and the servant serve thee, and on the eighth they shall be free." Behold the eighth day of liberty, which prefigures the holy Lord's Day, on which our God Christ freed the world from the frauds of the devil.
Now indeed, this whole universe has been commanded to endure for seven ages, by the authority of Solomon: "Give a portion to seven, and also to eight." This is what that great apostle Paul, the mouth of Christ, who ascended even to the third heaven, also testifies in these words: "When the Son shall deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father," then "the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage." Therefore, the eighth day not yet being known, the seventh was rightly observed as a day of rest; for as that is at hand, but the eighth age is not yet present, only seven ages are thought of for mankind.
But just as in that eighth age (which is to be, and will never end) no memory of the preceding seven will any longer be held, so with the Lord's Day, which is the eighth day of liberty, present, there is no need for the observance of the Sabbath. For when the human race lay subject to bondage, a Sabbath was also necessarily needed, offering a small respite to the weary. But when the eighth day has now granted all things through liberty, what use could there henceforth be for the seventh? And if it pleases you, consider diligently how, when your parents were feeding on manna in the desert, as David says: "Man ate the bread of angels"; the gathering of manna was useful and advantageous on other days, not remaining until the morrow because of Judaic gluttony, but being enough for daily food: but if anyone had gathered it on the Sabbath, he found his labor utterly useless. But from the time that that heavenly bread, which Isaiah perceived as a coal, and being touched by the cherub C who had taken it from the altar with tongs, heard from the Lord God of hosts: "Behold I have touched thy lips, and thy iniquity shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed"—from the time, I say, that that heavenly bread, by the kindness of the eternal Father and the aid of the Holy Spirit, descended to earth, as He Himself cries out: "I am the bread that came down from heaven"; from that time it becomes not a Sabbath, nor rest, nor a thin and meager life, nor a moderate distribution, but at every hour Christ is given as eternal and everlasting life to His servants.
CHAPTER LIX.
The bread of the presence, a type of Christ's body.Furthermore, both the bread and wine which Melchizedek brought forth, and the bread of the presence, of which only priests ate, prefigured the body and blood of Christ.
A For what wickedness is there that exceeds the kindness of God. And after a little: "And the people who shall be created," namely, through the evangelical doctrine, "shall praise the Lord." The same again: "But God will redeem my soul from the hand of the netherworld, when he shall have received me," that is, when, with my temperament assumed, and enduring death in the body, he shall also deliver my soul from the netherworld, as that of the others, for which Isaiah also acts: "The dead shall rise again, and they shall be awakened who are in the monuments, and they shall rejoice who are in the earth." Preannouncing the public resurrection, the prince Christ the Lord, has been made the firstborn from the dead. "They shall rejoice, I say, who are in the earth": for your dew is healing. And what other dew is our medicine than the water of holy baptism, whence we are cleansed and enlightened? But the earth of the impious shall fall. The earth of the impious is the influence and nature softened by earthly things, which, having spurned divine commands and being separated from God, is condemned to dwell with the prince of the netherworld: B which also did not recognize nor adore God present in the flesh. For Christ, dwelling on earth and among us men, did not save all universally, but those who recognized and professed themselves to be God. So also among the spirits of the netherworld, he saved those who recognized him and venerated him as God, and restored them to life: those who had done this not at all, he left with the spirits of Orcus. Therefore also David speaks thus: "Let sinners be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God." And through Ezekiel, God says to the dead: "Behold, I will open your graves: and I will bring you out of your sepulchers, O my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am your Lord, when I shall have opened your sepulchers, so that I may lead my people out of the sepulchers; and I will give my spirit in you and you shall live." Indeed, even foreseeing the plundering and desolation of Orcus, David cries out: "God shall crush their teeth in their mouth: the Lord shall break in pieces the jaw-teeth of lions." And Job: "To thee, O Lord, are the gates of death opened for fear, and the doorkeepers of hell saw thee and were afraid." Isaiah: "O Lord God, I will glorify thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; an ancient counsel C true. For you have laid cities in a heap, walled cities, that the foundations of the impious may fall and be destroyed forever: therefore shall the poor people bless thee, and the cities of men suffering injury, fearing thee. For thou hast been a helper to every humble city." He calls the impious, I suppose, demons, and the fortified towns, the kingdom of Orcus and the dwellings of death; by whom the needy, and those not full of habits joined with virtue, were detained and possessed. For all who lack virtue are needy. And these holy mysteries of the economy of Christ were being noted, by the receiving of which we receive the very holy body and precious blood of the Savior Christ, just as we have been taught by him: "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him." Again to the disciples: "Take and eat: this is my body. Do this in commemoration of me." Similarly also he says of the chalice: "Drink ye all of this. For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for you and for many unto the remission of sins." But these things are enough concerning the prince and queen of days; now let us turn the axis of our discourse to the discussion of the resurrection, and again let us contemplate David among all the rest.
CHAPTER LX.
Concerning the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
"Thou, rising, shalt have mercy on Sion, for it is time to have mercy on it, for the time is come." And in the same place: "The Lord shall build Sion, and he shall be seen in his glory: he hath had regard to the prayer of the humble." Whose? Those who, being in slavery to sins, have need of the work of divine mercy. "And he hath not despised their prayer." No D wickedness is greater than God's kindness.
A For when Christ descended into the regions below, not only were the souls of the saints delivered from there, but everyone who had previously been serving in the bondage of the Devil’s error and the worship of idols, once increased by the knowledge of God, attained salvation; wherefore they also gave thanks, praising God. Now also the words of God the Father through Isaiah to the Son are these: "In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee; and I gave thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, and to possess the desolate heritages," B by desolate heritages signifying the underworld, which Christ had found completely desolate and void. Furthermore, in order to render the petition thoroughly clear, he adds: "Saying to them that are in bonds, Go forth; and to them that are in darkness, That they may be revealed." Hosea adds, as though they were exhorting and urging one another, saying: "Come and let us return unto the Lord our God, for he has made us, and will heal us after two days." Do you perceive the prophet? First, hinting at the divine nature, he says: "He has made us"; then, however, presaging the bodily death of Christ: "After two days," he says, "he will heal us," treating that as entirely past, and this as future; finally, in order to show both, he boldly adds: "On the third day we shall rise again and live with him." Ezekiel, also declaring the greatness of God and how he possesses power over his own resurrection, prophesied not only about Christ, but also about all who are to rise again together with him. But if he is able to raise many, how much more will he be able to raise himself? Therefore he cries out clearly: "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me in the midst of the plain: and it was full of men's bones: and he went round about them in a circle: and behold there were very many upon the face of the plain, and they were very dry. And he said to me: Son of man, shall these bones live? And I said: O Lord God, thou knowest these things. And he said to me: Son of man, prophesy concerning these bones; and thou shalt say to them: O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord to these bones: Behold I will send the spirit of life into you, and I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin, and I will give my spirit into you: and you shall live: and you shall know that I am the Lord. And I prophesied as he had commanded me. And there was a noise as I was prophesying; and behold a commotion: and the bones came together, each one to its joint. And I saw: and behold sinews and the flesh came up upon them; and skins were stretched over them C from above: but the spirit was not in them. And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, O son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord: Come from the four winds (48) and blow upon these slain, and let them live. And I prophesied as he had commanded me. And the spirit entered into them; and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great congregation. And the Lord spoke to me, saying: Son of man, these bones are all the house of Israel: and they themselves say: Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, we have collapsed. Therefore prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will open your graves: and I will bring you out of your sepulchers, O my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel." That my Jesus fulfilled this prophecy of Ezekiel, the evangelist teaches in these words: "And behold the earth was shaken, and the rocks were rent, and the monuments were opened, and many bodies of the saints that had slept arose. And coming out of the monuments after his resurrection, they came into the holy city, and appeared to many." Isaiah also, showing that Jerusalem would be illustrious again after its destruction, holy, and enriched by the treasure of the sepulcher of the God-man Jesus, cries: "Thy gates shall be open continually: day and night they shall not be shut, that the strength of the Gentiles may be brought to thee, and their kings who are to be brought. For the Gentiles and the kings that will not serve thee, shall perish, and the Gentiles shall be wasted with solitude." Do you see how the prophecy is about Christ? For what nation, or what king, served Jerusalem or came to it as a suppliant? He adds: "And the glory of Libanus shall come to thee, in the cypress, and the pine, and the box tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary: and I will glorify the place of my feet." Having explained that Jerusalem would endure, through this benefit, he reveals also the author; as if he were saying: When you see in the pine and the cedar and the cypress, from which the cross was fashioned, God the man Jesus, then by him all these things will be brought to pass. D And see the meaning of the preceding verses from those that follow: "And the children of them that afflicted thee shall come to thee bowing down." Do you understand the prophet's careful diligence? For what he says is of this kind: the descendants of the Romans, who formerly afflicted you, will now come in fear and trembling to gather with you. "And they shall worship the steps of thy feet, who were taking away (49) from thee [and provoking thee]." For at that time, indeed, because of the crime of killing Christ, your inhabitants incited the Roman governor more to madness against you; but now, after you hold the font of life gushing within your breast: "They shall worship the steps of thy feet who were provoking thee. And thou shalt be called the city of the Lord, the Sion of the Holy One of Israel: for because thou wast forsaken and hated." Observe the prophetic mind. Since you were captive and desolate because Christ was killed,
you shall more rightly be called the city of God, because God, as man, Jesus, slept a vital sleep in you: "And there was none to help thee," besides me, to be sure, who in you have been put to death. "And I will make thee an eternal pride, a joy for generation to generation." The same God-bearing David, showing A this, says: "Unless the Lord keep the city, he watches in vain who keeps it." And "thou shalt suck the milk of the nations"; by this he hints at the gathering and faith of the Gentiles, "and thou shalt eat the wealth of kings." The prophet signifies a work of kings, or gifts brought by others, or the breaking and casting out of idols; "And you shall know that I am the Lord who saves you, and who delivers you, the God of Israel." Through Jeremiah, those who were not moved by benefits, being captives and punished with servitude, shall know. But Jacob speaks thus: B "He lay down and slept as a lion, and as a lion's cub; who shall rouse him?" And concerning those consumed by grief, David writes: "They cried to the Lord when they were in trouble, and he delivered them from their necessities, sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, bound in poverty and iron," in the lack of the knowledge of God, the iron of idols, and the hardness of worship. And in the same place: "He broke the brazen gates, and shattered the iron bolts." And Isaiah, as if from the Divinity to the body conjoined with It: "Thus says the Lord God to my Christ: I will hold his right hand, and I will hear him: before his face I will shatter C nations and the strength of kings: I will open doors before him, and the cities shall not be shut. I will go before you, and I will level the mountains, I will crush the brazen gates, and shatter the iron bolts." And concerning the liberation of souls from the underworld, Nahum says thus: "The gates of the cities were opened, and the regal [palaces] collapsed, and the substance was revealed (namely, the God-man Christ) and his handmaidens were led D away," like doves (the souls of the saints of the God-man Jesus, affected by His divinity); to which Isaiah adds: "You who dwell in the region and shadow of death, a light shall shine upon you," calling the Son "light," as we learned from the evangelist, from the person of Christ saying: "I am the light of the world: he who follows me does not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Nay, Christ Himself through David, as if from the body to God and the Father, cries out: "Because you will not leave my soul in Hades: neither will you give your holy one to see corruption." Come then, what do you think of this holy one? For did not every saint feel corruption? Far be it. The only one truly holy and chosen by God, and who did not see corruption, is Christ.
CHAPTER LXI-LXII. Christus mortuus corruptionem effugit.
JUD. We, for our part—no human being—
CHRIST. Divine providence has partitioned human nature into these three things: into seed, augmentation or nutrition, and into the state of consistency. For which cause three contraries also naturally follow: death, corruption, and destruction. This matter is evident from the funerals which we conduct, observe. For in death [we observe] the burial, in corruption the third day which we call the *feria*, and on the third [day] we observe the fortieth [day]. For the ninth-day [memorials] were devised for the restoration of souls. Therefore, some before the law, and in the law, and after the law, on account of their outstanding love toward God, struggled beyond nature, and did not feel corruption, [though they] suffered death.
But my Savior and God suffered death on account of the body, which He drew from pure virginal blood, to attest fully to His human nature. For if death invaded the circle of the earth on account of sin, and Christ is free of sin, it would have had no place in Him, had He not complied with the command; yet the Lord's body felt neither corruption nor destruction, since neither carnal desire preceded [His conception] nor was He conceived in vices, nor born in sins, as David says, for where these are, corruption and destruction necessarily follow. But the Savior of the world, wishing kindly to save the human race, voluntarily underwent destruction, which He Himself attests: "I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it again." And this was done after [the resurrection] so that, as much as possible for all the posterity of Adam, He might seek liberty, the bondage of the body being loosed, and death being extinguished in the body itself.
Chapter LXIII. That Christ ate after the resurrection, and ascended into heaven.
JUD. Why indeed, or in what manner, do you say that Christ, having revived and [become] incorrupt, and no longer needing food, ate again, and was taken up into the heavens? Do men therefore also, after the public resurrection, feast and eventually ascend into the heavens?
CHRIST. My Savior certainly spoke a definite opinion on these matters. For when your ancestors asked Him about certain seven brothers who had all married one wife, in order to raise up seed to a brother according to the law, whose of the seven would she be in the resurrection? "You err," He says, "not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God: in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but shall be as the angels of God in heaven." But as to what you ask in doubt, in what manner He ate after the resurrection, easily and
explorate from those things which you hold, and I shall resolve the question and the scruple. Certainly, just as the holy Trinity was entertained, having been invited by Abraham the patriarch, so that the fire consumed his provisions, seeing that he indeed divided the solid offerings into the middle and reduced them into pieces; but he did not divide the birds, but fire having descended from heaven consumed them; just as too in the memory of Elias, fire licked up the incendiary victims, and the wood, and the water in the trench, and the earth. Now, surely, that He ascended into the heavens, and sits at the right hand of the immortal Father, and is about to come again in the flesh to judge the living and the dead, the prophets A here also, not I, shall reveal the truth to you. Therefore Isaiah, when he saw the ascension of Christ with the body, and being struck with awe and marveling at the magnitude of the matter, cries out: "Who is this who comes from Edom, with red garments from Bosor? So beautiful in his robe?" Do you understand the prophet? When he gazed upon the humanity of Christ, he spoke of the redness of his garments and of Bosor, because it was of the flesh. But when he cast the keen eyes of his mind upon the divine nature, he says: "So beautiful in his robe?" But then, so that he might render the discourse clearer, as if from God-man, he adds: "I who speak righteousness, and judgment of salvation—righteousness (I speak) as one who, being made man for the salvation of men, translated those who were standing by idols, and the religion and honor rendered to them, to the true God. Judgment of salvation, as one who, being God, about to be the judge of all, I might have remunerated each according to his deeds. To which sentiment those words of David correspond: "Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men," and again: "God is a judge, righteous, strong, and patient." But Isaiah, wishing moreover to show most openly that it is by no means another who descended from heaven, suffered, was buried, and despoiled the underworld, and another who was taken up from earth into the heavens, makes an interrogation to the Savior: "Why are thy garments red, and thy clothing as one trodden in a winepress, full of trampled things? Why then is thy raiment red, and thy garments as of those treading in a winepress?" And he indeed asks in this manner, and having imitated Christ the Lord, who was to Himself both sacrificer and sacrifice, asking, he answers, fashioning an argument, as if He were answering. Therefore he says: "I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there is no man with me." For as at that time of the passion there was no need of twelve legions of angels (for He could even by Himself defend Himself and escape death, if He had willed, however much He might speak something human: "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt"), so here too He trod the winepress alone, having need of no one from the nations. But in the ascension, which the same Isaiah again testifies, "Ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands ministered to Him." B Then, admiring the preeminence of Christ and the grandeur of the things done, he introduces: "No messenger, nor angel, but the Lord Himself saved them." Zechariah: "Thus says the Lord: Behold, the days come: and his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives." Now, by naming the feet of God, he does not understand the effective power of God which flows from [His] feet, just as David called that which proceeds from the hands, hands, with these words: "Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me," but he signified corporeal feet; for for that reason, he also commemorated the day and the mount of Olives, so as to indicate the human, and as it were circumscribed, nature of Christ. David also, wishing to show as clearly as possible the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and after it the ascension into the heavens, and his as it were restoration to fullness, introduces the heavenly powers doubting among themselves; and revealing the ode through interrogation at the same time as the response, he speaks thus: "Lift up your gates, you princes, and be lifted up, you eternal gates, and the king of glory shall enter." Therefore, they, having beheld the glorious God ascending with the body, and being struck by the unaccustomed spectacle, ask: "Who is this king of glory?" They, in turn, answer: "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle," against death, the underworld, and the devil; for, death having been trampled, the underworld plundered, the devil broken, as the strong God He now ascends; therefore "lift up your gates, you princes of the Lord of angelic powers, and the glorious king about to enter," that is, about to sit at the right hand of God and the Father with the body. The same one again concerning the same person ascending: "Be Thou exalted above the heavens, O God, and in all the earth thy glory, because thy mercy has been magnified even unto the heavens, and thy truth even unto the clouds," as if he were saying: Now already all the presages of the prophets are complete. For before, Thy advent into the earth, the assumption of the body from virginal blood, the miracles, the mockeries of the Jews, the cross, the punishment, the death, the burial, the plundering of Orcus, the slaughter of death, the resurrection from the dead after three days, now being gloriously revived, Thy mercy has been magnified unto the heavens, and Thy truth unto the clouds. Whence also the Prophet, singing a grateful song to the Lord for human nature (for that nature was miserably cast out of paradise, now to be recalled by the distinguished kindness of Christ, and to be placed at the right hand of the majesty of the eternal Father): "Who," he says, "shall speak of the mighty acts of the Lord, and make heard all His praises?" And again: "God ascends in jubilation, and the Lord in the voice of the trumpet." Elsewhere: "In the sun He hath set His tabernacle," signifying the assumption with the body; and a little later: "His going forth is from the summit of heaven, and his course even unto the summit of him." By which words he signifies a double descent from the heavens to the earth, and under the earth, and again from them the ascent into the heavens.
A Migne also notes the tradition of the glory and power: for thus the beloved evangelist also says: "No man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven." And prophesying of the liberation of holy souls from the underworld, and the ascent of the Only-Begotten, and his sitting at the right hand of the Father, and exceedingly exulting and rejoicing on account of the care and honor bestowed upon the human race by the Maker and Curator of the whole universe, he says: "The Lord hath reigned, he is clothed with beauty," B thus naming the excellence of the body from its corruption and its immortality after corruption.
And that it is so, you will have a clearer sense of the words from what follows, for he says: "The Lord hath clothed himself with strength, and hath girded himself with power." And observe how he says these things concerning the inseparable assumption; neither is the Divinity now or formerly clothed with powers, nor will it be clothed [with them] in the future; but before the ages, and now, and throughout all future ages besides, it is clothed [with them]. Nor is it valid only by itself, but it bestows it upon all other things also so that they might be valid. For which reason the opinion of Daniel is this: "And behold as the appearance of a man: and he raised me up upon my knees, and upon the tracks of my feet; and he said to me: Do manfully, and be strong: and as he spoke with me, I was strengthened." This he says. Let us repeat the songs of the psalms. "Thy throne is prepared from of old." When? From the time when thou wert made a consort to the Father for the fashioning and creating of all creation. Since the mysteries of thy economy, ordained from all eternity, were perfected in the final times. He adds, in order to illuminate the discourse: "From everlasting thou art." And a little later, "Thy testimonies are become exceedingly credible," C that is, fixed and irrevocable are thy precepts, such as what God says to Moses in Deuteronomy: "Go down and testify to the people," so that they might accurately observe the reason for the mysteries or precepts. "Holiness becometh thy house unto length of days." Understand the house of God to be Christ the assumed, affected by divinity: holiness and length of days is the perennial and eternal union of the two natures, which is to suffer no discord. The same again: "The heavens have declared his justice, and all peoples have seen his glory." And to the angels adoring the Son, he says: "Adore him, all you his angels." But to the Son, who is to be adored: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a rod of direction, a rod of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved justice, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows," D and thou, who now clothed in flesh returnest to heaven, "In the beginning, O Lord, thou foundedst the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands: they shall perish, but thou remainest, and all shall grow old as a garment, and as a vesture thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed: but thou art the selfsame, and thy years shall not fail."
The words of the prophet Amos are these: "He that buildeth his ascension in heaven, and foundeth his security upon the earth: he that calleth the water of the sea and poureth it out upon the face of the earth, the Lord almighty is his name." Now concerning that Almighty God, the architect of the universe, who gathered the waters of the whole earth that were drawn back into certain cisterns, while himself dwelling in the flesh (51) upon those who dwell on the earth, he fashioned his security, which is true religion: but he fixed his throne in heaven, signifying the assumption (by which he is assumed into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father).
CHAPTER LXIV. Of the second coming of Christ.
Consistent are those things: "And he ascended upon the Cherubim, and flew upon the wings of the winds." And elsewhere: "Be thou exalted, O Lord, in thy strength; we will sing and will sing psalms in thy power." Furthermore, concerning the second coming of Christ, through Micah God says to the Son: "Arise and tread, because I will make thy horns iron, and thy hoofs I will make brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples"; and again: "Arise to judge before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear, O ye mountains, the judgment of the Lord, and ye valleys and foundations of the earth: for judgment is for the Lord against his people; and with Israel he will be judged." But through Isaiah God thus: "My justice will not be far off: and I will not make my salvation that is from me to loiter." Zephaniah: "Be silent at the face of the Lord God, because the day of the Lord is near." Zechariah: "Thus saith the Lord almighty: Behold a Man, the Orient is his name, and he shall rise up from beneath himself, and shall sit upon his throne." Isaiah indeed again: "He is clothed with justice as with a breastplate, and he put a helmet on his head: and he is clothed with the garment of vengeance, and with the cloak of zeal, as if he were about to repay retribution for the opprobrium to his adversaries, and vengeance to his enemies: he will render a return to the islands. And they that are from the West shall fear the name of the Lord, and they that are from the rising of the sun his glorious name. For his anger shall come as a violent river: it shall come with fury. And he who saves shall come from Zion, and he shall avert impieties from Jacob, saith the Lord almighty." And David: "Arise, O Lord, in thy wrath, and be thou exalted in the borders of thy enemies: and arise, O Lord my God, in the precept which thou hast commanded, and a congregation of peoples shall surround thee: and for this return on high: the Lord judgeth the peoples." See how apt and composed the sentiment is. Explained first
A by these words concerning the resurrection from the dead: "Arise, O Lord, in thy wrath," that is, in the fury of thy glory for the slaughter of the Jews: he subjoins: "Exalt thyself in the borders of thine enemies"; in heaven, together with the angels, ascending above the clouds: "And arise, O Lord my God, in the precept that thou hast commanded," when? When thou wast seen incarnate on earth, and didst dwell among men. But those words of the Evangelist are twofold: "Then shall the Son of man sit upon the seat of his majesty: and all nations shall be gathered before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats," which is the same as that prophetic saying: "And a congregation of peoples shall surround thee." Moreover, that it may signify an eternal and perennial time, he adds: "And for this (cause, namely, for true judgment) return on high," showing that there is no other just judge, except thee alone, who didst descend from heaven first for the salvation of men, and afterward for judgment, and didst ascend again into heaven. And therefore that beloved disciple thunders: "No man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven." The words of Jeremiah also are these: "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord: and all nations shall be gathered to it." Yea, and Solomon says: "Remove anger from thy heart, and take away evil from thy flesh: until the sun be darkened, and the moon and the stars shall not give their light," by these words hinting at the second coming of Christ, when all this universe shall be changed, and as it were fashioned anew. And David: "For behold the kings of the earth have assembled, they have come together in one: they themselves seeing it understood, they were astonished, they were shaken, trembling took hold of them: there were pains as of a woman in labor." And Micah: "Behold the day of the Lord cometh burning as a furnace: and it shall burn: all the wicked and sinners shall be as stubble; and the day that cometh shall set them on fire and there shall not be left of them root nor branch." Haggai: "Yet once more I will move all nations." Isaiah: "I will clothe the heavens with darkness, and will make sackcloth their covering." David: "The God of gods, the Lord hath spoken, and he hath called the earth from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof: out of Sion the loveliness of his hue: God shall come manifestly." Not, as before, gentle, as a meek lamb, as a drop gently falling upon the fleece, as a sheep led to the slaughter, and as an innocent lamb to be brought to the victim; but he shall come gloriously, that is, royally, and as it befits God, attended by august angels, and accompanied by all the heavenly hosts, reigning from all eternity, and unto all eternity. Therefore our God shall come, and will not keep silence: a fire shall blaze in his sight, and a mighty tempest shall be round about him. He shall call the heaven B from above, and the earth to discern his people. "Gather unto him his saints, who set his covenant before sacrifices." And elsewhere: "God hath spoken once; these two things have I heard; what are they? On earth God, in heaven man." He adds, confirming the prayer: "Because the power is of God: and thou, O Lord, art merciful: for thou wilt render to every man according to his works." And Paul, following him, cries out: "For in that wherein he himself hath suffered, he is able to succor them also that are tempted." And through Zephaniah, God the Father confirms: "And I will distress men and they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord." Do you see? He did not say: Because they have sinned against me, but, "against the Lord"; for they inflicted punishments upon his most beloved Son, according to what he assumed. Therefore "I will pour out their blood as dust, and their flesh as the dung of oxen: and their silver, and their gold shall be blown away as dust; and he shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord: because in the fire of his zeal all the earth shall be consumed." Observe indeed, he does not say: In the day of my wrath, but: "In the fire of his zeal," attributing the power of judgment to the Only-begotten. And so my Savior also says: "Neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son." And of the Son, David says: "Fire shall go before him, and shall inflame his enemies round about." Behold how God shall come again incarnate; for what other enmities could men cast at Christ, according to his divine and immortal C nature, save the human sufferings which he endured from the Jews? Wherefore woe to his enemies on that day. The same again: "The heavens shall declare his justice: for God is judge." But Ezekiel has it thus: "Let all nations rise up, and ascend to the valley of Josaphat; for there I will sit, to judge all nations round about. Put in the sickles, because the harvest is ripe; come ye, go down, for the winepress is full; the press fats overflow, because their wickedness is multiplied. Sounds have been heard in the valley of justice: the sun and moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall make their splendor to retire: but the Lord shall cry out from Sion, and shall give his voice from Jerusalem: and the heaven and the earth shall be moved, but the Lord shall spare his own people." And Moses: "The Lord shall judge his people: and in his servants he shall take pleasure." Calling them saints, who meditate upon his justices, and perform his commands. He calls the impious and guilty sinners his people: whence he shall judge these, and in those he shall take pleasure. Isaiah thus continues these things: "For behold the Lord shall come as a fire, and as a whirlwind his chariots, to render his wrath in indignation, and his rebuke in a flame of fire; for with the fire of the Lord shall all the earth be judged." David: "Re- D
Ajoice, O heavens, and let the earth exult: let the sea be moved, and the fullness thereof: the fields shall rejoice, and all things that are in them. Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the face of the Lord, because He comes: for He comes to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with equity, and the peoples in his truth." Is it so, O Prophet? When other prophets proclaim that all mortals must shudder and tremble at the sight of God, do you invite heaven, earth, forest, and hills to rejoice and exult? "Yes," he replies: for God, coming to those who have acknowledged Him as God and have kept His precepts, will grant immortality, eternal life, and a kingdom; He will say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." But if all fields and all sylvan trees will rejoice and exult, this is at His prior coming, for then all things obtained joy and exultation: but in the second, the just only shall possess these things. For the detestable, those who go into the outer fire, will feel a huge, intolerable, and most bitter burning. Wherefore, when he says, "Because He comes," he signifies the prior advent; when he repeats, "For He comes to judge the earth," he represents the other, in which not liberty and salvation, but damnation and punishment shall be administered. For when the Creator and Lord, bending the heavens, descended and proved His own benevolence, He testified both to humanity and to judgment: to the former, when He says, "He that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live: and every one that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever." Finally, elsewhere He declares His benevolence: "I came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance." Speaking of judgment, He speaks thus: "If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin"; and again, "He that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven." And the Prophet shows that this is true: "Let all be confounded that adore graven things, and that glory in their idols." And the same concerning the utterly wicked: "Fill their faces with shame, and they shall seek thy name, O Lord. Let them be ashamed and troubled for ever and ever; and let them be confounded and perish."
They teach, however, that punishment will have an end, and they think that sins will be consumed by a purgatorial fire, and thus finally expect to pass into perennial life and pleasure, interpreting that sentence of Paul: "For it will be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is: if any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire." But (52) this does by no means establish an end to punishments, but on the contrary their increase; (and that, indeed, to be always B kept 53). And this is to remain intact, and the sinner is to be reserved to be burned for ever. Even though they themselves may think that which does not consume, and keeps them always in the flame, is an argument of salvation and remission. But if they thus oppose the words of St. Paul, and contradict as one ought not, yet they are refuted by holy David. For since he himself taught openly that there would be confusion, and perturbation, and eternal conversion into hell, their expectation of any even the slightest cessation is false. And in another psalm indeed he says: "For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us by fire, as silver is tried: thou hast brought us into a snare, thou hast laid afflictions on our back; thou hast set men over our heads. We have passed through fire and water, and thou hast brought us into a refreshment." But this merely covers the unevenness of the present life, and the conversion and vicissitude of human affairs, as declared in those words. Here, demonstrating their ruin more C pointedly, he adds: "And let them know that thy name is Lord: thou alone art the Most High over all the earth." Thou alone art supreme, who alone descended from on high, and alone without sin wast made man, and from all eternity art Lord and King of the whole universe and God. Isaiah agrees with David concerning eternal punishment: "All flesh shall come to adore before my face in Jerusalem, saith the Lord. And they shall go out, and see the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be extinguished: and they shall be a vision to all flesh." Daniel also in the same manner concerning the eternity of punishments: "Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake: some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach, and eternal shame. And they that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament: and many from the just, as stars for all eternity, and beyond." But if they will madly burn to overturn these prophetic D predictions, they will certainly be contained by the proven words of the Lord, who denies that the servant is greater than the master, or the disciple better than the teacher. For He is properly and truly the Master, who delivered to the disciples what He had learned not only by hearing from the will of God and the Father, to whom He is equal in power, and honor, and nature. But what is the clear sentiment of the Savior? "And these shall go into everlasting punishment (speaking of the wicked): but the just into life everlasting." And Micah: "Behold he cometh, saith the Lord almighty; and who shall be able to think of the day of his coming, and who shall stand to behold him? for he is like a refining fire, and like the fuller's herb: and he shall sit refining, and"
A cleaning as it were silver and gold. That which is akin to this from David is: "A fire shall go before him, and shall burn up his enemies round about." Solomon puts the matter thus: "Then shall the just stand in great constancy against those who have afflicted them, and who have snatched away their labors. Seeing them, they shall be perturbed by a horrible fear, and shall wonder at the suddenness of [their] unexpected salvation."
B The heaven shall be indignant, and the earth shall be shaken from its foundations, on account of the fury of the wrath of the Lord of Sabaoth, in that day when his fury shall come. In another place the same author pursues these things thus: "The Lord of Sabaoth shall arise in the valley of Gabaon: with fury shall he perform his works, the works of bitterness: his fury shall use another, and a foreign bitterness, and do not you rejoice, nor let your bonds be strengthened: for I have heard of finished and shortened things from the Lord of Sabaoth, which he is about to do over all the earth." And in the following chapter he has these words: "When they shall have seen my works, they shall sanctify my name, and they shall sanctify the holy one of Jacob himself, and they shall fear the God of Israel." Amos left these: "Who builds his ascension in heaven, and founds his security over the earth: who calls the water of the sea, and pours it out over the face of the earth."
Moreover, David has revealed not only the judgment, but the very place of judgment, in these words: "I was glad in those things which were said to me, we shall go into the house of the Lord: our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem: Jerusalem, which is built as a city, whose participation is in itself; for thither the tribes have ascended, the tribes of the Lord, a testimony to Israel, to confess to the name of the Lord: for there have sat in judgment, seats upon the house of David." C And Isaiah: "Then the Lord shall stand in judgment, and shall appoint his people for judgment. The Lord himself shall come to judgment with the elders of the people, and with his princes." And again: "Thus saith the Lord. In that day God shall shine forth in counsel with glory over the earth, in order to exalt and glorify the remnant of Israel. And it shall be, that what shall have remained in Sion, and what shall have survived in Jerusalem, all shall be called holy, written for life in Jerusalem. For the Lord shall wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Sion, and shall cleanse the blood from the midst of them in the spirit of judgment, and the spirit of burning." Where, by two judgments, he signifies both rest and punishment. "And the Lord shall come, and every place of the mount of Sion and all things which are in its circuit shall be overshadowed by a cloud by day, and as it were by smoke, and by the light of a fire glowing by night, and it shall be protected by all glory. And it shall be for a shadow from the heat by day, and for a protection and an hiding place from the severity and the rain." "And man shall be humbled, and the man shall be dishonored, and the lofty eyes shall be humbled; and the Lord of Sabaoth shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be glorified in justice." And elsewhere: "The day of the Lord is near, and contrition shall come from God. On account of this every hand shall be dissolved, and every soul of man shall fear. The messengers shall be perturbed, and pains shall hold them, as a woman in labor: and they shall condole one with another, and shall be stupefied, and shall change their faces as it were a flame. D For behold the day of the Lord comes incurable, of fury and wrath, to place the orb of the earth a desert, and to destroy the sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and Orion, and all the ornament of heaven, shall not give their light; and they shall be darkened at the rising of the sun; and the moon shall not give its light. And I will command evils to the universal earth, and to the impious their sins: and I will destroy the pride of the iniquitous, and I will humble the contumacy of the proud. And those who shall have been left shall be more honored than the gold of Incoctum, and a man shall be more honored than the stone of Suphir."
Mark diligently the sentence conceived in reverse order. For what he says is of this kind: That Almighty God, the fashioner of the universe, who pours out the waters of the sea upon the soil of the whole earth, at the end fixing his stability upon his own earth, that is, made man without sin (for let stability be the body of the Son) incarnate, and having contracted his body and conversed among us servants, he built his own steps in heaven. Joel: "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and illustrious day of the Lord comes. And it shall be: Everyone who shall have called upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved." And through Sophonias, God says: "I will afflict men, and they shall walk as if blind, because they have sinned against the Lord." Indeed, God did not say: "because they have sinned against me," but against the Lord, namely, the very dear Son. Therefore, my Lord also, addressing your elders, says: "For judgment I have come into this world: that those who do not see, may see, and those who see, may become blind." Jeremias: "I looked upon the earth: and behold, nothing: and into heaven; and its lights were not, and I saw the mountains; and behold they were trembling, and all the hills perturbed from the face of the Lord." And David: "He saw, and the earth was moved: the mountains and all the hills melted like wax: because the Lord comes, because he comes to judge the earth." "He shall judge the orb of the earth in equity, and the peoples in his truth." Truth, however, is the Only-Begotten himself, as he himself confirms in the Gospel: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And Isaiah again: "The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day; and he shall rebuke the unpunished people." The sense of which words is this: Christ shall come in the sublime, and in his divine majesty, who shall condemn not all, but the refractories, and those who have not revered him. And through Ezechiel, God: "I will judge each one in his ways..."