Dialogue between a Christian and a Jew

your father and I, sorrowing, have been seeking you.” But the Lord, revealing to them from then on the divinity hidden in the lowly appearance of the human nature he had assumed, answered them, saying: “Why did you still seek me? And where were you seeking me? You did not ascend to heaven: you did not dwell in the belly of the whale of Jonah. Why is it that you sought me? Do you not know that I must be in the things of my Father? Did you not hear the prophecy of Symeon? Did he not confess him to be Lord and God; and do you seek me as a child? Did you not know that I must be in the things of my Father? I have one Father in heaven; you I have as foster-parents.” And with this speech finished at this place, let us give ourselves to the divine and mystical table, and apply ourselves to that through which the world is strengthened and the orb of the earth persists, and the kingdom is preserved, and the Church increases, and God is sanctified in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and empire now and always, and for ages of ages. Amen. ^B

NOTICE REGARDING THE FOLLOWING DIALOGUE

The ambiguity of age, which we have said above burdens the writings of Eusebius, seems to us just as much to press upon another little work, which is said to have been composed in the Vatican codex at about the same time. It is a long Greek dialogue between Timotheus the Christian and Aquila the Jew, and it is said to have been held at Alexandria, while Cyril the Great held the helm of that Church; yet the style of the work seems to suggest a somewhat later age. The dialogue consists of a long examination of prophecies, by which it is demonstrated that Jesus is truly God, and that he is the Messiah expected by the Jews, with the Christian persuading and the Jew contradicting, until the latter finally admits defeat; and having sought the benefit of baptism, he is led to Bishop Cyril to be cleansed. But indeed Cyril, so that he might transfer the ministry and honor of baptizing Aquila to Timotheus, the author of the conversion, who was otherwise a layman, ordained him on the same day, as it seems, both deacon and presbyter; which having been done, Timotheus baptized the Jew and thereafter had him in stable companionship. Perhaps it would not have been useless to print this religious dialogue, had not its sheer length deterred me. At the very least, I shall write down here the title and the conclusion of the work.

DIALOGUE OF A CHRISTIAN AND A JEW

BEGINNING

CONCLUSION

^A their hands upon him. Now, O man of God, tell me what I must do to be saved. The Christian said: If you believe with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, and with all your understanding, rise up, be baptized, and wash away your sins, having called upon the name of the Lord Jesus, so that you too may hear, with those who are listening, the words of the holy psalmist David: "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." Having said this, the Christian arose, because the crowd of the faithful was shouting out and saying, "The faith of the Christians is victorious!" and was blessing the king and the angel-like bishop. The Jew, standing up and falling at the feet of the Christian, and raising his voice with weeping, said to the Christian: "The Lord will require my soul at your hands if you do not make me a Christian." And the Christian raised him up, telling him to remain right there; and he went in to the most holy bishop ^B [who said to him]: "My son, it is fitting for the laboring farmer to be the first to partake of the fruits; you have labored, do you therefore first receive the fruit of it." But when he said that he was not of the clergy, the bishop immediately went to the Lord's house, and giving him peace, laid hands upon him as a deacon, and again giving him peace, made him a presbyter, and gave him the other presbyters and deacons for the ministry of the liturgy; and he gave him a parchment written with the invocations and prayers of the rite. And the most holy presbyter Timothy, having gone away with the rest of the priests and deacons to the place where Aquila was waiting ^C, took him and brought him into the church; and they performed the liturgy, and baptized him in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, renaming him Theognostus; and he, having partaken of the ineffable mysteries, became a temple of the Holy Spirit—he who was formerly a Jew, but now a Christian by the grace of God; who was formerly a wolf, but now has become a sheep of Christ. And the presbyter Timothy took him into his own house, and they were at all times together glorifying the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, to whom be all glory, honor, power, and adoration, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. ^D

APPENDIX TO THE WORKS OF TIMOTHY OF JERUSALEM. NOTICE ON THE FOLLOWING HOMILY.

(Jac. GRETSER, t. II, p. 313.)

We have the oration of Timothy, presbyter of Antioch, from the library of Grottaferrata by the help and labor of Jerome Brunelli, a priest of our Society, who also sent us a copy to which he added not a few corrections, which we have followed in the edition, and it is not worth the effort to recount them in detail. For although one might suspect that this homily was delivered in the middle of Lent: on the feast of the Veneration of the Cross, nevertheless it pleased us to place it in this position, lest this feast should be entirely lacking any encomium; especially since those who preach on the feast of the Veneration of the Cross follow the Gospel of St. Mark and explain it; while this one is [on the Gospel] of St. Luke.