Webpage Justin 6 Page 19 TO INDEX
JUSTIN DIALOGUE WITH TRYPHO
Part
3 - Chapters 27 through 36
Chapter
27
Predictions of Christ in psalm xxii.
1. I shall repeat
the whole Psalm, in order that you may hear His reverence to the Father, and how
He refers all things to Him, and prays to be delivered by Him from this death;
at the same time declaring in the Psalm who they are that rise up against Him,
and showing that He has truly become man capable of suffering.
2. It is as
follows: 'O God, my God, attend to me why hast Thou forsaken me? The words of my
transgressions are far from my salvation. O my God, I will cry to Thee in the
daytime, and Thou wilt not hear; and in the night-season, and it is not for want
of understanding in me.
3.
But Thou, the
Praise of Israel, inhabit the holy place. Our fathers trusted in Thee; they
trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee, and were delivered:
they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man; a
reproach of men, and despised of the people.
4. All they that
saw me laughed me to scorn; they spoke with the lips, they shook the head: He
trusted on the Lord: let Him deliver him, let Him save him, since he desires
Him. For Thou art He that took me out of the womb; my hope from the breasts of
my mother
5. I was cast upon
Thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly: be not far from me,
for trouble is near; for there is none to help. Many calves have compassed me;
fat bulls have beset me around. They opened their mouth upon me, as a ravening
and roaring lion.
6. All my bones
are poured out and dispersed like water. My heart has become like wax melting in
the midst of my belly. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue
has cleaved to my throat; and Thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
7. For many dogs
have surrounded me; the assembly of the wicked have beset me round. They pierced
my hands and my feet, they did tell all my bones. They did look and stare upon
me; they parted my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
8. But remove not
Thine assistance from me, O Lord: give heed to help me; deliver my soul from the
sword, and Thy only begotten from the hand of the dog. Save me from the lion's
mouth, and my humility from the horns of the unicorns.
9. I will declare
Thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the Church will I praise Thee. Ye that
fear the Lord, praise Him: all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him. Let all the
seed of Israel fear Him.' "
10. And when I had
said these words, I continued: Now I will demonstrate to you that the whole
Psalm refers thus to Christ, by the words which I shall again explain. What is
said at first--'O God, my God, attend to me: why hast Thou forsaken
me?'--Announced from the beginning that which was to be said in the time of
Christ.
11.
For when
crucified, He spoke: 'O God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?' And what
follows: 'the words of my transgressions are far from my salvation. O my God, I
will cry to Thee in the day-time, and Thou wilt not hear; and in the
night-season, and it is not for want of understanding in me.'
12.
These, as well
as the things which He was to do, were spoken. For on the day on which He was to
be crucified, having taken three of His disciples to the hill called Olive,
situated opposite to the temple in Jerusalem, He prayed in these words:
13.
'Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me.' And again He prayed: "Not as I
will, but as Thou wilt;' showing by this that He had become truly a suffering
man. But lest any one should say, He did not know then that He had to suffer, He
adds immediately in the Psalm:
14.
'And it is not
for want of understanding in me.' Even as there was no ignorance on God's part
when He asked Adam where he was, or asked Cain where Abel was; but to convince
each what kind of man he was, and in order that through the record we might have
a knowledge of all:
15.
So likewise
Christ declared that ignorance was not on His side, but on theirs, who thought
that He was not the Christ, but fancied they would put Him to death, and that
He, like some common mortal, would remain in Hades.
16.
Then what
follows - 'But Thou, the praise of Israel, inhabits the holy place' - declared
that He is to do something worthy of praise and wonderment, being about to rise
again from the dead on the third day after the crucifixion; and this He has
obtained from the Father.
17.
For I have
showed already that Christ is called both Jacob and Israel; and I have proven
that it is not in the blessing of Joseph and Judah alone as to what relates to
Him was proclaimed mysteriously, but also in the Gospel it is written that He
said: 'All things are delivered
unto me by My Father;' and, 'No man knows the Father but the Son; nor the Son
but the Father, and they to whom the Son will reveal Him.'
18. Accordingly, He
revealed to us all that we have perceived by His grace out of the Scriptures, so
that we know Him to be the first-begotten of God, and to be before all
creatures; likewise to be the Son of the patriarchs, since He assumed flesh by
the Virgin of their family, and submitted to become a man without comeliness,
dishonored, and subject to suffering.
19.
Hence, also,
among His words He said, when He was discoursing about His future sufferings:
"The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the Pharisees
and Scribes, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.'
20.
He said then
that He was the Son of man, either because of His birth by the Virgin, who was,
as I said, of the family of David and Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham; or because
Adam was the father both of Himself and of those who have been first enumerated
from whom Mary derives her descent.
21.
For we know
that the fathers of women are the fathers likewise of those children whom their
daughters bear. For He called one of His disciples, previously known by the name
of Simon - Peter since he recognized Him to be Christ the Son of God, by the
revelation of His Father:
22. And since we
find it recorded in the memoirs of His apostles that He is the Son of God, and
since we call Him the Son, we have understood that He proceeded before all
creatures from the Father by His power and will, and that He became man by the
Virgin, in order that the disobedience which proceeded from the serpent might
receive its destruction in the same manner in which it derived its origin.
23. For Eve, who
was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought
forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy, when
the angel Gabriel announced the good tidings to her that the Spirit of the Lord
would come upon her, and the power of the Highest would overshadow her:
24.
Wherefore also
the Holy Thing begotten of her is the Son of God; and she replied, 'Be it unto
me according to thy word.' And having been born by her, of whom we have proven
so many Scriptural references, and by whom God destroys both the serpent and
those angels and men who are like him; but works deliverance from death to those
who repent of their wickedness and that believe upon Him.
Chapter
28
Christ refers all things to the Father
1. Then what
follows of the Psalm is this, in which He says: 'our fathers trusted in Thee;
they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee, and were not
confounded. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the
people.
2. Which show that
He admits them to be His fathers, who trusted in God and were saved by Him, who
also were the fathers of the Virgin, by whom He was born and became man; and He
foretells that He shall be saved by the same God, but boasts not in
accomplishing anything through His own will or might.
3. For when on
earth He acted in the very same manner, and one who addressed Him as' Good
Master, He said; Why call thou me good? One is good, my Father who is in
heaven.' But when He says, I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and
despised of the people,' He prophesied the things which do exist, and which
happen to Him.
4. For we who
believe on Him are everywhere a reproach, despised of the people; for, rejected
and dishonored by your nation, He suffered those indignities, which you planned
against Him. And the following:
5. 'All they that
see me laughed me to scorn; they spoke with the lips, they shook the head: and
saying; He trusted in the Lord; let Him deliver him, since he desires Him; This
likewise He foretold to come to happen to Him.
6. For they that
saw Him crucified, each one of them, shook their heads, and distorted their
lips, and twisting their noses to each other, they spoke in mockery the words
which are recorded in the memoirs of His apostles: 'He said he was the Son of
God: let him come down; let God save him.'
7. And what
follows, 'My hope from the breasts of my mother. On Thee have I been cast from
the womb; from my mother's belly Thou art my God: for there is no helper. Many
calves have compassed me; fat bulls have beset me around.
8. They opened
their mouth upon me, as a ravening and a roaring lion. All my bones are poured
out and dispersed like water. My heart has become likes wax melting in the midst
of my belly. My strength is become dry like a potsherd; and my tongue has
cleaved to my throat' - foretold what would come to pass;
9. For the
statement, 'My hope from the breasts of my mother;' As soon as He was born in
Bethlehem, as I previously remarked, king Herod, having learned from the Arabian
Magi about Him, made a plot to put Him to death and by God's command Joseph took
Him with Mary and departed into Egypt.
10. For the Father
had decreed that He whom He had begotten should be put to death, but not before
He had grown to manhood, and proclaimed the word, which proceeded from Him. But
if any of you say to us, could not God rather have put Herod to death?
11.
I return answer
by anticipation: Could not God have cut off in the beginning the serpent, so
that he exist not, rather than have said, 'And I will put enmity between him and
the woman, and between his seed and her seed?'
12. Could He not
have at once created a multitude of men? But yet, since He knew that it would be
good, He created both angels and men free to do that which is righteous, and He
appointed periods of time during which He knew it would be good for them to have
the exercise of free-will;
13. And because He
likewise knew it would be good, He made general and particular judgments; each
one's freedom of will, however, being guarded. Hence Scripture says the
following, at the destruction of the tower, and division and alteration of
tongues:
14.
'And the Lord
said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they
have begun to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them of all, which
they have attempted to do.'
15. And the
statement, 'My strength is become dry like a potsherd, and my tongue has cleaved
to my throat,' was also a prophecy of what would be done by Him according to the
Father's will.
16.
For the power
of His strong word, by which He always confuted the Pharisees and Scribes, and,
in short, all your nation's teachers that questioned Him, had a cessation like a
plentiful and strong spring, the waters of which have been turned off, when He
kept silence;
17. And chose to
return no answer to any one in the presence of Pilate; as has been declared in
the memoirs of His apostles, in order that what is recorded by Isaiah might have
efficacious fruit, where it is written, 'The Lord gives me a tongue, that I may
know when I ought to speak.'
18. Again, when He
said, 'Thou art my God; be not far from me,' He taught that all men ought to
hope in God who created all things, and seek salvation and help from Him alone;
and not suppose, as the rest of men do, that salvation can be obtained by birth,
or wealth, or strength, or wisdom.
19. And such have
ever been your practices: at one time you made a calf, and always you have shown
yourselves ungrateful, murderers of the righteous, and proud of your descent.
For the Son of God evidently stating that He cannot be saved, because He is a
son, nor because He is strong or wise.
20.
But that
without God He cannot be saved, even though He is sinless, as Isaiah declares in
words to that effect, that even in regard to His language He committed no sin,
how do you or others who expect to be saved without this hope, suppose that you
are not deceiving yourselves?
21. Then what is
said next in the Psalm 'for trouble is near, there is none to help me. Many
calves have compassed me; fat bulls have beset me around. They opened their
mouth upon me as a ravening and roaring lion. All my bones are poured out and
dispersed like water,' -was likewise a prediction of the events which happened
to Him.
22. For on that
night when some of your nation, who had been sent by the Pharisees and Scribes,
and teachers, came upon Him from the Mount of Olives, those whom Scripture
called butting and prematurely destructive calves surrounded Him.
23. And the
expression, 'Fat bulls have beset me around,' He spoke beforehand of those who
acted similarly to the calves, when He was led before your teachers. And the
Scripture described them as bulls, since we know that bulls are authors of
calves' existence.
24. As therefore
the bulls are the begetters of the calves, so your teachers were the cause why
their children went out to the Mount of Olives to take Him and bring Him to
them. And the expression, 'for there is none to help,' is also indicative of
what took place.
25. For there was
not even a single man to assist Him as an innocent person. And the expression,
'They opened their mouth upon me like a roaring lion,' designates him who was
then king of the Jews, and was called Herod, a successor of the Herod who, when
Christ was born, slew all the infants in Bethlehem born about the same time.
26.
Because he
imagined that amongst them He would assuredly be of whom the Magi from Arabia
had spoken; for he was ignorant of the will of Him that is stronger than all,
how He had commanded Joseph and Mary to take the Child and depart into Egypt,
and there to remain until a revelation should again be made to them to return
into their own country.
27. And there they
did remain until Herod, who slew the infants in Bethlehem, was dead, and
Archelaus had succeeded him. And he died before Christ came to the dispensation
on the cross, which was given Him by His Father.
28. And when Herod
succeeded Archelaus, having received the authority which had been allotted to
him, Pilate sent Jesus bound to him by way of compliment; and God foreknowing
that this would happen, had thus spoken:
29. 'And they
brought Him to the Assyrian, a present to the king.' Or He meant the devil by
the lion roaring against Him: whom Moses calls the serpent, but in Job and
Zechariah he is called the devil, and by Jesus is addressed as Satan, showing
that a compounded name was acquired by him from the deeds which he performed.
30. For
'Sata' in
the Jewish and Syrian tongue means apostate; and 'Nas' is the word from which he
is called by interpretation the serpent, i.e., according to the
interpretation of the Hebrew term, from both of which there arises the single
word Satanas.
31.
For this devil,
when Jesus went up from the river Jordan, at the time when the voice spoke to
Him, 'Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten Thee,' is recorded in the
memoirs of the apostles to have come to Him and tempted Him, even so far as to
say to Him, 'Worship me;' and Christ answered him, 'Get thee behind me, Satan:
thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.'
32.
For as he had
deceived Adam, so he hoped that he might contrive some mischief against Christ
also. Moreover, the statement, 'All my bones are poured out and dispersed like
water; my heart has become like wax, melting in the midst of my belly,' was a
prediction of that which happened to Him on that night when men came out against
Him to the Mount of Olives to seize Him.
33.
For in the
memoirs which were drawn up by His apostles and those who followed them - that
His sweat fell down like drops of blood while He was praying, and saying, 'If it
be possible, let this cup pass:' His heart and also His bones trembling;
34.
His heart being
like wax melting in His belly: in order that we may perceive that the Father
wished His Son really to undergo such sufferings for our sakes, and may not say
that He, being the Son of God, did not feel what was happening to Him and
inflicted on Him.
35.
Further, the
expression, 'My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue has cleaved
to my throat,' was a prediction, as I previously remarked, of that silence, when
He who convicted all your teachers of being unwise returned no answer at all.
Chapter
29
1. And the
statement, 'Thou hast brought me into the dust of death; for many dogs have
surrounded me: the assembly of the wicked have beset me around. They pierced my
hands and my feet. They did tell all my bones. They did look and stare upon me.
They parted my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.'
2. These also were
a prediction, as I said before, of the death to which the synagogue of the
wicked would condemn Him, whom He calls both dogs and hunters, declaring that
those who hunted Him were both gathered together and assiduously striving to
condemn Him. And this is recorded to have happened in the memoirs of His
apostles.
3. And what
follows of the Psalm, - 'But Thou, Lord, do not remove Thine assistance from me;
give heed to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, and my only begotten from
the hand of the dog; save me from the lion's mouth, and my humility from the
horns of the unicorns,'--was also information and prediction of the events which
should befall Him.
4.
For I have
already proven that He was the only-begotten of the Father of all things, being
begotten in a peculiar manner Word and Power by Him, and having afterwards
become man through the Virgin, as we have learned from the memoirs.
5. Moreover, it is
similarly foretold that He would die by crucifixion. For the passage, 'Deliver
my soul from the sword, and my only-begotten from the hand of the dog; save me
from the lion's mouth, and my humility from the horns of the unicorns,' is
indicative of the suffering by which He should die, i.e., by crucifixion.
6. For the 'horns
of the, unicorns,' I have already explained to you, are the figure of the cross
only. And the prayer that His soul should be saved from the sword, and lion's
mouth, and hand of the dog, was a prayer that no one should take possession of
His soul:
7. So that, when
we arrive at the end of life, we may ask the same petition from God, who is able
to turn away every shameless evil angel from taking our souls. And that the
souls survive, I have shown to you from the fact that the soul of Samuel was
called up by the witch, as Saul demanded.
8. And it appears
also, that all the souls of similar righteous men and prophets fell under the
dominion of such powers, as is indeed to be inferred from the very facts in the
case of that witch. Hence also God by His Son teaches us for whose sake these
things seem to have been done, always to strive earnestly, and at death to pray
that our souls may not fall into the hands of any such power.
9. For when Christ
was giving up His spirit on the cross, He said, 'Father, into Thy hands I
commend my spirit,' as I have learned also from the memoirs.
10. For He exhorted
His disciples to surpass the pharisaic way of living, with the warning, that if
they did not, they might be sure they could not be saved; and these words are
recorded in the memoirs: 'Unless your righteousness exceed that of the Scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.'
11. The remainder
of the Psalm makes it manifest that He knew His Father would grant to Him all
things which He asked, and would raise Him from the dead; and that He urged all
who fear God to praise Him because He had compassion on all races of believing
men, through the mystery of Him who was crucified;
12. And that He
stood in the midst of His brethren the apostles, and when living with them sang
praises to God, as is made evident in the memoirs of the apostles. The words are
the following: 'I will declare Thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the
Church will I praise Thee.
13. Ye that fear
the Lord, praise Him; all ye, the seed of Jacob, glorify Him. Let all the seed
of Israel fear Him.' And when it is said that He changed the name of one of the
apostles to Peter; and when it is written in the memoirs of Him that this so
happened.
14. As well as that
He changed the names of other two brothers, the sons of Zebedee, to Boanerges,
which means sons of thunder; this was an announcement of the fact that it was He
by whom Jacob was called Israel, and Oshea called Jesus (Joshua), under whose
name the people who survived of those that came from Egypt were conducted into
the land promised to the patriarchs.
15. And that He
should arise like a star from the seed of Abraham, Moses showed before hand when
he thus said, 'A star shall arise from Jacob, and a leader from Israel;' and
another Scripture says, 'Behold a man; the East is His name.'
16. Accordingly,
when a star rose in heaven at the time of His birth as is recorded in the
memoirs of His apostles, the Magi from Arabia, recognizing the sign by this,
came and worshipped Him.
17. And that He
would rise again on the third day after the crucifixion, it is written in the
memoirs that some of your nation, questioning Him, said, 'Show us a sign;' and
He replied to them, 'An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and
no sign shall be given them, save the sign of Jonah.'
18. And since He
spoke this obscurely, it was to be understood by the audience that after His
crucifixion He should rise again on the third day. And He showed that your
generation was more wicked and more adulterous than the city of Nineveh.
19. For the latter,
when Jonah preached to them, after he had been cast up on the third day from the
belly of the great fish, that they should all perish, proclaimed a fast of all
creatures, men and beasts, with sackcloth, and with earnest lamentation, with
true repentance from the heart.
20. And turning
away from unrighteousness, in the belief that God is merciful and kind to all
who turn from wickedness; so that the king of that city himself, with his nobles
also, put on sackcloth and remained fasting and praying, and obtained their
request that the city should not be overthrown.
21.
But when Jonah
was grieved, as he proclaimed, the city was not overthrown, by the dispensation
of a gourd springing up from the earth for him, under which he sat and was
shaded from the heat, and by the other dispensation of its withering away.
22.
For which Jonah
grieved, God convicting him of being unjustly displeased because the city of
Nineveh had not been overthrown, and said, 'Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for
the which thou hast not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night,
and perished in a night.
23. And shall I not
spare Nineveh, the great city, wherein dwell more than six score thousand
persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and
also much cattle?'
24. And though all
the men of your nation knew the incidents in the life of Jonah, and though
Christ said amongst you that He would give the sign of Jonah, exhorting you to
repent of your wicked deeds at least after He rose again from the dead, and to
mourn before God as did the Ninevites, in order that your nation and city might
not be taken and destroyed, as they have been destroyed;
25. Yet you not
only have not repented, after you learned that He rose from the dead, but, as I
said before you have sent chosen and ordained men throughout all the world to
proclaim that a godless and lawless heresy had sprung from one Jesus, a Galilean
deceiver, whom we crucified.
26. But his
disciples stole him by night from the tomb, where he was laid when unfastened
from the cross, and now deceive men by asserting that he has risen from the dead
and ascended to heaven.
27.
Moreover, you
accuse Him of having taught those godless, lawless, and unholy doctrines which
you mention to the condemnation of those who confess Him to be Christ, and a
Teacher from and Son of God.
28.
Besides this,
even when your city is captured, and your land ravaged, you do not repent, but
dare to utter imprecations on Him and all who believe in Him.
29.
Yet we do not
hate you or those who, by your means, have conceived such prejudices against us;
but we pray that even now all of you may repent and obtain mercy from God, the
compassionate and long-suffering Father of all.
30. But that the
Gentiles would repent of the evil in which they led erring lives, when they
heard the doctrine preached by His apostles from Jerusalem, and which they
learned through them, suffer me to show you by quoting a short statement from
the prophecy of Micah.
31.
This is as
follows: 'And in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest,
established on the top of the mountains; it shall be exalted above the hills,
arid people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall go, and say;
32.
Come, let us go
up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and they
shall enlighten us in His way, and we shall walk in His paths: for out of Zion
shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
33. And He shall
judge among many peoples, and shall rebuke strong nations afar off; and they
shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles: nation
shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
34. And each man
shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree; and there shall be none to
terrify: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. For all people will
walk in the name of their gods; but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
for ever.
35. And it shall
come to pass in that day, that I will assemble her that is afflicted, and gather
her that is driven out, and whom I had plagued; and I shall make her that is
afflicted a remnant, and her that is oppressed a strong nation. And the Lord
shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, and even for ever.'
Chapter
30
1. And when I had
finished these words, I continued: Now I am aware that your teachers, sirs,
admit the whole of the words of this passage to refer to Christ; and I am
likewise aware that they maintain He has not yet come; or if they say that He
has come, they assert that it is not known who He is; but when He shall become
manifest and glorious, then it shall be known who He is.
2. And then, they
say, the events mentioned in this passage shall happen, just as if there was no
fruit as yet from the words of the prophecy. O unreasoning men! Understanding
not what has been proven by all these passages, that two advents of Christ have
been announced.
3. The one, in
which He is set forth as suffering, inglorious, dishonored, and crucified; but
the other, in which He shall come from heaven with glory, when the man of
apostasy, who speaks strange things against the Most High, shall venture to do
unlawful deeds on the earth against us the Christians.
4.
Who, having
learned the true worship of God from the law, and the word which went forth from
Jerusalem by means of the apostles of Jesus, have fled for safety to the God of
Jacob and God of Israel; and we who were filled with war, and mutual slaughter,
and every wickedness, have each through the whole earth changed our warlike
weapons.
5. Our swords into
ploughshares, and our spears into implements of tillage,--and we cultivate
piety, righteousness, philanthropy, faith, and hope, which we have from the
Father Himself through Him who was crucified; and sitting each under his vine,
i.e., each man possessing his own married wife.
6.
For you are
aware that the prophetic word says, 'And his wife shall be like a fruitful
vine.' Now it is evident that no one can terrify or subdue us who have believed
in Jesus over all the world.
7. For it is plain
that, though beheaded, and crucified, and thrown to wild beasts, and chains, and
fire, and all other kinds of torture, we do not give up our confession; but the
more such things happen, the more do others and in larger numbers become
faithful, and worshippers of God through the name of Jesus.
8.
For Just as if
one should cut away the fruit-bearing parts of a vine, it grows up again, and
yields other branches flourishing and fruitful; even so the same thing happens
with us. For the vine planted by God and Christ the Savior is His people.
9.
But the rest of
the prophecy shall be fulfilled at His second coming. For the expression, 'He
that is afflicted by the world, so far as you and other men have it in their
power, each Christian has been driven out not only from his own property, but
even from the whole world; for you permit no Christian to live.
10. But you say
that the same fate has befallen your own nation. Now, if you have been cast out
after defeat in battle, you have suffered such treatment justly indeed, as all
the Scriptures bear witness;
11. But we, though
we have done no such evil, after we knew the truth of God, are testified to by
God, that, together with the most righteous, and the spotless and sinless
Christ, we are taken away out of the earth.
12. For Isaiah
cries, 'Behold how the righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and
righteous men are taken away, and no man considers it.'
13.
And that it was declared by symbol, even in the time of Moses,
that there would be two advents of this Christ, as I have mentioned previously, is manifest from the symbol of
the goats presented for sacrifice during the fast.
14. And again, by
what Moses and Joshua did, the same thing was symbolically announced and told
beforehand. For the one of them, stretching out his hands, remained till evening
on the hill, his hands being supported; and this reveals a type of no other
thing than of the cross: and the other, whose name was altered to Jesus
(Joshua), led the fight, and Israel conquered.
15.
Now this took
place in the case of both those holy men and prophets of God, that you may
perceive how one of them could not bear up both the mysteries: I mean, the type
of the cross and the type of the name. For this is, was, and shall be the
strength of Him alone, whose name every power dreads, being very much tormented
because they shall be destroyed by Him.
16. Therefore our
suffering and crucified Christ was not cursed by the law, but made it manifest
that He alone would save those who do not depart from His faith. And the blood
of the Passover, sprinkled on each man's doorposts and lintel, delivered those
who were saved in Egypt, when the first-born of the Egyptians were destroyed.
17.
For the
Passover was Christ, who was afterwards sacrificed, as also Isaiah said, 'He was
led as a sheep to the slaughter.' And it is written, that on the day of the
Passover you seized Him, and that also during the Passover you crucified Him.
18.
And as the
blood of the Passover saved those who were in Egypt, so also the blood of Christ
will deliver from death those who have believed. Would God, then, have been
deceived if this sign had not been above the doors? I do not say that; but I
affirm that He announced beforehand the future salvation for the human race
through the blood of Christ.
19.
For the sign of
the scarlet thread, which the spies sent to Jericho by Joshua, son of Nave
(Nun), gave to Rahab the harlot, telling her to bind it to the window through
which she let them down to escape from their enemies.
20. Also manifested
the symbol of the blood of Christ, by which those who were at one time harlots
and unrighteous persons out of all nations are saved, receiving remission of
sins, and continuing no longer in sin.
21.
But you,
expounding these things in a low manner, impute much weakness to God, if you
thus listen to them merely, and do not investigate the force of the words
spoken.
22. Since even
Moses would in this way be considered a transgressor: for he enjoined that no
likeness of anything in heaven, or on earth, or in the sea, be made; and then he
himself made a brazen serpent and set it on a standard, and bade those who were
bitten look at it: and they were saved when they looked at it.
23. Will the
serpent, then, which God had cursed in the beginning and cut off by the great
sword, as Isaiah says, be understood as having preserved at that time the
people? And shall we receive these things in the foolish acceptation of your
teachers, and not as signs?
24. And shall we
not rather refer the standard to the resemblance of the crucified Jesus, since
also Moses by his outstretched hands, together with him who was named Jesus
(Joshua), achieved a victory for your people?
25.
For in this way
we shall cease to be at a loss about the things, which the lawgiver did, when
he, without forsaking God, persuaded the people to hope in a beast through which
transgression and disobedience had its origin.
26. And this was
done and said by the blessed prophet with much intelligence and mystery; and
there is nothing said or done by any one of the prophets, without exception,
which one can justly reprehend, if he possesses the knowledge, which is in them.
27.
If, then, you
will not despise the doctrines of those who exalt themselves and wish to be
called Rabbi, and come with such earnestness and intelligence to the words of
prophecy as to suffer the same inflictions from your own people which the
prophets themselves did, you cannot receive any advantage whatsoever from the
prophetic writings.
·
Joshua was a figure of Christ.
28. What I mean is
this. Jesus (Joshua), as I have now frequently remarked, who was called Oshea,
when he was sent to spy out the land of Canaan, was named by Moses Jesus
(Joshua). Why he did this you neither ask, nor are at a loss about it, nor make
strict inquiries.
29.
Therefore
Christ has escaped your notice; and though you read, you understand not; and
even now, though you hear that Jesus is our Christ, you consider not that the
name was bestowed on Him not purposelessly nor by chance.
30. But you make a
theological discussion as to why one that was added to Abraham's first
name; and as to why one 'p' was added to Sarah's name, you use similar
high-sounding disputations. But why do you not similarly investigate the reason
why the name of Oshea the son of Nave (Nun), which his father gave him, was
changed to Jesus (Joshua)?
31.
But since not
only was his name altered, but he was also appointed successor to Moses, being
the only one of his contemporaries to came out from Egypt, he led the surviving
people into the Holy Land; and as he, not Moses, led the people into the Holy
Land,
32. And as he
distributed it by lot to those who entered along with him, so also Jesus the
Christ will turn again the dispersion of the people, and will distribute the
good land to each one, though not in the same manner.
33. For the former
gave them a temporary inheritance, seeing he was neither Christ who is God, nor
the Son of God; but the latter, after the holy resurrection, shall give us the
eternal possession. The former, after he had been named Jesus (Joshua), and
after he had received strength from His Spirit, caused the sun to stand still.
34. For I have
proved that it was Jesus who appeared to and conversed with Moses, and Abraham,
and all the other patriarchs without exception, ministering to the will of the
Father; who also, I say, came to be born man by the Virgin Mary, and lives for
ever.
35.
For the latter
is He after whom, and by whom the Father will renew both the heaven and the
earth; this is He who shall shine an eternal light in Jerusalem; this is he who
is the king of Salem after the order of Melchizedek, and the eternal Priest of
the Most High.
36. The former is
said to have circumcised the people a second time with knives of stone, and to
have collected together those who were circumcised from the un-circumcision,
i.e., from the error of the world, in every place by the knives of stone, to
wit, the words of our Lord Jesus.
37. For I have
shown that Christ was proclaimed by the prophets in parables a Stone and a Rock.
Accordingly the knives of stone we shall take to mean His words, by means of
which so many who were in error have been circumcised from un-circumcision.
38. With the
circumcision of the heart, which God by Jesus commanded to those from that time
to be circumcised who derived their circumcision from Abraham, saying that Jesus
(Joshua) would circumcise a second time with knives of stone those who entered
into that holy land.
Chapter
31
1.
For the Holy
Spirit sometimes brought about that something, which was the type of the future,
should be done clearly; sometimes He uttered words about what was to take place,
as if it was then taking place, or had taken place.
2. And unless
those who read perceive this art, they will not be able to follow the words of
the prophets as they ought. For example's sake, I shall repeat some prophetic
passages, that you may understand what I say.
3.
When He speaks
by Isaiah, 'He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before the
shearer,' He speaks as if the suffering had already taken place. And when He
says again, 'I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying
people;' and when He says, 'Lord, who hath believed our report?'
4.
The words are
spoken as if announcing events which had already come to pass. For I have shown
that Christ is oftentimes called a Stone in parable, and in figurative speech
Jacob and Israel. And again, when He says, 'I shall behold the heavens, the
works of Thy fingers,'
5.
Unless I
understand His method of using words, I shall not understand intelligently, but
just as your teachers suppose, fancying that the Father of all, the un-begotten
God, has hands and feet, and fingers, and a soul, like a composite being; and
they for this reason teach that it was the Father Himself who appeared to
Abraham and to Jacob.
6. Blessed
therefore are we who have been circumcised the second time with knives of stone.
For your first circumcision was and is performed by iron instruments, for you
remain hard-hearted; but our circumcision, which is the second, having been
instituted after yours, circumcises us from idolatry and from absolutely every
kind of wickedness by sharp stones, i.e., by the words preached by the apostles
of the corner-stone cut out without hands.
7. And our hearts
are thus circumcised from evil, so that we are happy to die for the name of the
good Rock, which causes living water to burst forth for the hearts of those who
by Him have loved the Father of all, and which gives those who are willing to
drink of the water of life.
8. But you do not
comprehend me when I speak these things; for you have not understood what it has
been prophesied that Christ would do, and you do not believe us who draw your
attention to what has been written.
9. For Jeremiah
thus cries: 'Woe unto you! because you have forsaken the living fountain, and
have dug for yourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. Shall there be a
wilderness where Mount Zion is, because I gave Jerusalem a bill of divorce in
your sight?'
10. But you ought
to believe Zechariah when he shows in parable the mystery of Christ, and
announces it obscurely. The following are his words: 'Rejoice, and be glad, O
daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I shall dwell in the midst of thee, saith
the Lord.
11. And many
nations shall be added to the Lord in that day. And they shall be my people, and
I will dwell in the midst of thee; and they shall know that the Lord of hosts
hath sent me unto thee.
12. And the Lord
shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and He shall choose Jerusalem
again. Let all flesh fear before the Lord, for He is raised up out of His holy
clouds.
13. And He showed
me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel; and the devil stood at his
right hand to resist him. And the Lord said to the devil, The Lord who has
chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Behold, is not this a brand plucked out of the
fire?'
14. As Trypho was
about to reply and contradict me, I said, Wait and hear what I say first: for I
am not to give the explanation which you suppose, as if there had been no priest
of the name of Joshua (Jesus) in the land of Babylon, where your nation were
prisoners.
15. But even if I
did, I have shown that if there was a priest named Joshua (Jesus) in your
nation, yet the prophet had not seen him in his revelation, just as he had not
seen either the devil or the angel of the Lord by eyesight, and in his waking
condition, but in a trance, at the time when the revelation was made to him.
16.
But I now say,
that as said that the Son of Nave (Nun) by the name Jesus (Joshua) wrought
powerful works and exploits which proclaimed beforehand what would be performed
by our Lord;
17.
So I proceed
now to show that the revelation made among your people in Babylon in the days of
Jesus (Joshua) the priest, was an announcement of the things to be accomplished
by our Priest, who is God, and Christ the Son of God the Father of all.
18.
Indeed, I
wondered, continued I, why a little ago you kept silence while I was speaking,
and why you did not interrupt me when I said that the son of Nave (Nun) was the
only one of contemporaries who came out of Egypt that entered the Holy Land
along with the men described as younger than that generation.
19.
For
you swarm and light on sores like flies. For though one should speak ten
thousand words well, if there happen to be one little word displeasing to you,
because not sufficiently intelligible or accurate, you make no account of the
many good words, but lay hold of the little word, and are very zealous in
setting it up as something impious and guilty;
20.
In
order that, when you are judged with the very same judgment by God, you may have
a much heavier account to render for your great audacities, whether evil
actions, or bad interpretations which you obtain by falsifying the truth.
21. For with what
judgment you judge, it is righteous that you be judged withal.
22. But to give you
the account of the revelation of the holy Jesus Christ, I take up again my
discourse, and I assert that even that revelation was made for us who believe on
Christ the High Priest, namely this crucified One; and though we lived in
fornication and all kinds of filthy conversation, we have by the grace of our
Jesus, according to His Father's will, stripped ourselves of all those filthy
wickedness with which we were imbued.
23. And though the
devil is ever at hand to resist us, and anxious to seduce all to himself, yet
the Angel of God, i.e., the Power of God sent to us through Jesus Christ,
rebukes him, and he departs from us.
24.
And we are just
as if drawn out from the fire, when purified from our former sins, and from the
affliction and the fiery trial by which the devil and all his coadjutors try us;
out of which Jesus the Son of God has promised again to deliver us, and invest
us with prepared garments, if we do His commandments; and has undertaken to
provide an eternal kingdom.
25. For just as
that Jesus (Joshua), called by the prophet a priest, evidently had on filthy
garments because he is said to have taken a harlot for a wife, and is called a
brand plucked out of the fire, because he had received remission of sins when
the devil that resisted him was rebuked;
26. Even so we, who
through the name of Jesus have believed as one man in God the Maker of all, have
been stripped, through the name of His first-begotten Son, of the filthy
garments, i.e., of our sins; and being vehemently inflamed by the word of His
calling, we are the true high priestly race of God. As even God Himself bears witness, saying that in every place
among the Gentiles sacrifices are presented to Him well-pleasing and pure.
27.
Now God
receives sacrifices from no one, except through His priests. Accordingly, God,
anticipating all the sacrifices which we offer through this name, and which
Jesus the Christ enjoined us to offer, i.e., in the Eucharist of the bread and
the cup, and which are presented by Christians in all places throughout the
world, bears witness that they are well-pleasing to Him.
28.
But He utterly
rejects those presented by you and by those priests of yours, saying, 'And I
will not accept your sacrifices at your hands; for from the rising of the sun to
its setting my name is glorified among the Gentiles but ye profane it.'
29. Yet even now,
in your love of contention, you assert that God does not accept the sacrifices
of those who dwelt then in Jerusalem, and were called Israelites; but says that
He is pleased with the prayers of the individuals of that nation then dispersed,
and calls their prayers sacrifices.
30. Now, that
prayers and giving of thanks, when offered by worthy men, are the only perfect
and well-pleasing sacrifices to God, I also admit.
31. For such alone
Christians have undertaken to offer, and in the remembrance effected by their
solid and liquid food, whereby the suffering of the Son of God which He endured
is brought to mind, whose name the high priests of your nation and your teachers
have caused to be profaned and blasphemed over all the earth.
32. But these
filthy garments, which have been put by you on all who have become Christians by
the name of Jesus, God shows shall be taken away from us, when He shall raise
all men from the dead, and appoint some to be incorruptible, immortal, and free
from sorrow in the everlasting and imperishable kingdom; but shall send others
away to the everlasting punishment of fire.
33.
But as to you
and your teachers deceiving yourselves when you interpret what the Scripture
says as referring to those of your nation then in dispersion, and maintain that
their prayers and sacrifices offered in every place are pure and well-pleasing,
learn that you are speaking falsely.
34. And trying by
all means to cheat yourselves: for, first of all, not even now does your nation
extend from the rising to the setting of the sun, but there are nations among
which none of your race ever dwelt.
35.
For there is
not one single race of men, whether barbarians, or Greeks, or whatever they may
be called, nomads, or vagrants, or herdsmen living in tents, among whom prayers
and giving of thanks are not offered through the name of the crucified Jesus.
36. And then, as
the Scriptures show, at the time when Malachi wrote this, your dispersion over
all the earth, which now exists, had not taken place. So that you ought rather to desist from the love of strife,
and repent before the great day of judgment come, wherein all those of your
tribes who have pierced this Christ shall mourn as I have shown has been
declared by the Scriptures.
37. And I have
explained that the Lord swore, 'after the order of Melchizedek,' and what this
prediction means; and the prophecy of Isaiah which says, 'His burial is taken
away from the midst,' I have already said, referred to the future burying and
rising again of Christ; and I have frequently remarked that this very Christ is
the Judge of all the living and the dead.
38. And Nathan
likewise, speaking to David about Him, thus continued: 'I will be His Father,
and He shall be my Son; and my mercy shall I not take away from Him, as I did
from them that went before Him; and I will establish Him in my house, and in His
kingdom for ever.' And Ezekiel says, 'There shall be no other prince in the
house but He.'
39. For He is the
chosen Priest and eternal King, the Christ, inasmuch as He is the Son of God;
and do not suppose that Isaiah or the other prophets speak of sacrifices of
blood or libations being presented at the altar on His second advent, but of
true and spiritual praises and giving of thanks.
40. And we have not
in vain believed in Him, and have not been led astray by those who taught us
such doctrines; but this has come to pass through the wonderful foreknowledge of
God, in order that we, through the calling of the new and eternal covenant, that
is of Christ, might be found more intelligent and God-fearing than yourselves,
who are considered to be lovers of God and men of understanding, but are not.
41. And Isaiah,
filled with admiration of this, said: 'And kings shall shut their mouths: for
those to whom no announcement has been made in regard to Him shall see; and
those who heard not shall understand. Lord, who hath believed our report? and to
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?'
42. And in
repeating this Trypho, I continued, as far as is allowable, I endeavor to do so
for the sake of those who came with you to-day, yet briefly and concisely.
Then he replied, You do well; and though you repeat the same things at
considerable length, be assured that I and my companions listen with all
pleasure .
Chapter
32
1.
Then I said
again, Would you suppose, sirs, that we could ever have understood these matters
in the Scriptures, if we had not received grace to discern by the will of Him
whose pleasure it was? in order that the saying of Moses might come to pass.
2.
'They provoked
me with strange gods, to anger with their abominations. They sacrificed to
demons whom they knew not; new gods that came up whom their fathers knew not.
Thou hast forsaken the God that begat thee, and forgotten the God that brought
thee up.
3.
And the Lord
saw, and was jealous, and was provoked to anger by reason of the rage of His
sons and daughters: and He said, I will turn My face away from them, and show
them what their end shall be; for it is a very stubborn generation, children in
whom there is no faith.
4. They have moved
Me to jealousy with that which is not God, they have provoked Me to anger with
their idols; and I will move them to jealousy with that which is not a nation, I
will provoke them to anger with a foolish people.
5.
For a fire is
kindled from Mine anger, and it shall burn to Hades. It shall consume the earth
and her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains; I will heap
mischief on them.'
6.
And after that
Righteous One was put to death, we flourished as another people, and shot forth
as new and prosperous corn; as the prophets said, 'And many nations shall betake
themselves to the Lord in that day for a people: and they shall dwell in the
midst of all the earth.'
7.
But we are not
only a people, but also a holy people, as we have shown already. 'And they shall
call them the holy people, redeemed by the Lord.' Therefore we are not a people
to be despised, nor a barbarous race, nor such as the Carians and Phrygian
nations; but God has chosen us and He has become manifest to those who asked not
after Him.
8.
'Behold, I am
God,' He says, 'to the nation which called not on My name.' For this is that
nation which God of old promised to Abraham, when He declared that He would make
him a father of many nations; not meaning, however, the Arabians, or Egyptians,
or Idumeans, since Ishmael became the father of a mighty nation, and so did
Esau; and there is now a great multitude of Ammonites.
9. Noah, moreover,
was the father of Abraham, and in fact of all men; and others were the
progenitors of others. What larger measure of grace, then, did Christ bestow on
Abraham? This, namely, that He called him with His voice by the like calling,
telling him to quit the land wherein he dwelt.
10. And He has
called all of us by that voice, and we have left the way of living in which we
used to spend our days, passing our time in evil after the fashions of the other
inhabitants of the earth; and we shall inherit the holy land along with Abraham,
when we shall receive the inheritance for an endless eternity, being children of
Abraham through the like faith.
11. For as he
believed the voice of God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness, in like
manner we having believed God's voice spoken by the apostles of Christ, and
promulgated to us by the prophets, have renounced even to death all the things
of the world.
12.
Accordingly, He
promises to him a nation of similar faith, God-fearing, righteous, and
delighting the Father. But it is
not you, in whom there is no faith?
13. Observe, too,
how the same promises are made to Isaac and to Jacob. For thus He spoke to
Isaac: 'And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.' And to
Jacob: 'And in thee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed.'
14.
He says that
neither to Esau nor to Reuben, nor to any other; only to those of whom the
Christ should arise, according to the dispensation, through the Virgin Mary. But
if you would consider the blessing of Judah, you would perceive what I say.
15.
For the seed is
divided from Jacob, and comes down through Judah, and Pharos, and Jesse, and
David. And this was a symbol of the fact that some of your nation would be found
children of Abraham, and found, too, in the lot of Christ;
16. But that
others, who are indeed children of Abraham, would be like the sand on the
sea-shore, barren and fruitless, much in quantity, and without number indeed,
but bearing no fruit whatever, and only drinking the water of the sea.
17. And a vast
multitude in your nation are convicted of being of this kind, imbibing doctrines
of bitterness and godlessness, but spurning the word of God. He speaks therefore
in the passage relating to Judah: 'A prince shall not fail from Judah, nor a
ruler from his thighs, till that which is laid up for him comes; and He shall be
the expectation of the nations.'
18. And it is plain
that this was spoken not of Judah, but of Christ. For all we out of all nations
do expect not Judah, but Jesus, who led your fathers out of Egypt. For the
prophecy referred even to the advent of Christ: 'Till He comes for whom this is
laid up, and He shall be the expectation of nations.'
19.
Jesus therefore
came as we have shown at length, and is expected again to appear above the
clouds; whose name you profane, and labor hard to get it profaned over all the
earth. It now is possible for me to contend against you about the reading which
you so interpret saying; it is
written, 'Till the things laid up for Him come;' though the Seventy have not so
explained it, but rather, 'Till He comes for whom this is laid up.'
20.
But since what
follows indicates that the reference is to Christ, I do not proceed to have a
mere verbal controversy with you, as I have not attempted to establish proof
about Christ from the passages of Scripture which are not admitted by you.
21. Such as I
quoted from the words of Jeremiah the prophet, and from Esdras, and David; and
from those which are even now admitted by you, which if your teachers had
comprehended the same, be well assured that they would have deleted them, as
they did with those of the death of Isaiah, whom you sawed in halves
with a wooden saw.
22. And this was a
mysterious type of Christ being about to cut your nation in two, and to raise
those worthy of the honor to the everlasting kingdom along with the holy
patriarchs and prophets; but He has said that He will send others to the
condemnation of the unquenchable fire along with similar disobedient and
impenitent men from all the nations.
23. 'For they shall
come,' He said, 'from the west and from the east, and shall sit down with
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the
kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.'
24. And I have
mentioned these things, taking nothing whatever into consideration, except the
speaking of the truth, and refusing to be coerced by any one, even though I
should be forthwith torn in pieces by you.
25.
For I gave no
thought to any of my people, that is, the Samaritans, when I had a communication
in writing with Caesar, but stated that they were wrong in trusting to the
magician Simon of their own nation, who, they say, is God above all power, and
authority, and might.
26. And as they
kept silence, I went on, speaking by David about this Christ, how not in ‘His
seed’ the nations should be blessed, but 'in Him.' So it is: 'His name shall rise up for ever above the
sun; and in Him shall all nations be blessed.'
27.
But if all
nations are blessed in Christ, and we of all nations believe in Him, then He is
indeed the Christ, and we are those blessed by Him. God formerly gave the sun as
an object of worship, as it is written, but no one ever was seen to endure death
on account of his faith in the sun; but for the name of Jesus you may see men of
every nation who have endured and do endure all sufferings, rather than to deny
Him.
28.
For the word of
His truth and wisdom is more ardent and more light-giving than the rays of the
sun, and sinks down into the depths of heart and mind. Hence also the Scripture
said, 'His name shall rise up above the sun.'
29. And again,
Zechariah says, 'His name is the East.' And speaking of the same, he says that
'each tribe shall mourn.' But if He so shone forth and was so mighty in His
first advent, that in no nation He is unknown, and everywhere men have repented
of the old wickedness in each nation's way of living, so that even demons were
subject to His name, and all powers and kingdoms feared His name more than they
feared all the dead,
30.
Shall He not on
His glorious advent by all means destroy all those who hated Him, and who
unrighteously departed from Him, and give rest to His own, rewarding them with
all they have looked for?
31.
To us
therefore, it has been granted to hear, and to understand, and to be saved by
this Christ, and to recognize all by the Father. Wherefore He said to Him:
32. 'It
is a great thing for Thee to be called my servant, to raise up the tribes of
Jacob, and turn again the dispersed of Israel. I have appointed Thee for a light
to the Gentiles, that Thou may be their salvation unto the end of the earth.'
Chapter
33
1. You think that
these words refer to the stranger and the proselytes, but in fact they refer to
us who have been illumined by Jesus. For Christ would have borne witness even to
them; but now you are become twofold more the children of hell, as He said.
2. Therefore what
was written by the prophets was spoken not of those persons, but of us,
concerning whom the Scripture speaks: 'I will lead the blind by a way which they
knew not; and they shall walk in paths which they have not known. And I am
witness, saith the Lord God, and my servant whom I have chosen.'
3. To whom, then,
does Christ bear witness? Manifestly to those who have believed. But the
proselytes not only do not believe, but twofold more than yourselves blaspheme
His name, and wish to torture and put to death us who believe in Him; for in all
points they strive to be like you.
4. And again in
other words He cries: 'I the Lord have called Thee in righteousness, and will
hold Thine hand, and will strengthen Thee, and will give Thee for a covenant of
the people, for a light of the Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring
out the prisoners from their bonds.'
5. These words,
indeed, sirs, refer also to Christ, and concern the enlightened nations; or will
you say again, He speaks to them of the law and the proselytes?
6. Then some of
those who had come on the second day cried out as if they had been in a theatre,
saying; But does He not refer to the law and to those illumined by it, that
these are proselytes?
7. "No,"
I said, looking towards Trypho, since, if the law were able to enlighten the
nations and those who possess it, what need is there of a new covenant?
8.
But since God
announced beforehand that He would send a new covenant, and an everlasting law
and commandment, we will not understand this of the old law and its proselytes,
but of Christ and His proselytes, namely us Gentiles, whom He has illumined, as
He says somewhere:
9.
'Thus saith the
Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard Thee, and in a day of salvation have I
helped Thee, and I have given Thee for a covenant of the people, to establish
the earth, and to inherit the deserted.' What, then, is Christ's inheritance? Is
it not the nations?
10. What is the
covenant of God? Is it not Christ? As He says in another place: 'Thou art my
Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the nations
for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.'
11. As, therefore,
all these latter prophecies refer to Christ and the nations, you should believe
that the former refer to Him and them in like manner. For the proselytes have no
need of a covenant, if, since there is one and the same law imposed on all that
are circumcised, the Scripture speaks about them thus:
12.
'And the
stranger shall also be joined with them, and shall be joined to the house of
Jacob;' and because the proselyte, who is circumcised that he may have access to
the people, become like one of themselves, while we who have been deemed worthy
to be called a people are yet Gentiles, because we have not been circumcised.
13. Besides, it is
ridiculous for you to imagine that the eyes of the proselytes are to be opened
while your own are not, and that you be understood as blind and deaf while they
are enlightened.
14. And it will be
still more ridiculous for you, if you say that the law has been given to the
nations, but you have not known it.
15. For you would
have stood in awe of God's wrath, and would not have been lawless, wandering
sons; being much afraid of hearing God always say, 'Children in whom is no
faith. And who are blind, but my servants? and deaf, but they that rule over
them?
16. And the
servants of God have been made blind. You see often, but have not observed; your
ears have been opened, and you have not heard.' Is God's commendation of you
honorable? And is God's testimony seemly for His servants?
17. You are not
ashamed though you often hear these words. You do not tremble at God's threats,
for you are a people foolish and hard-hearted. 'Therefore, behold, I will
proceed to remove this people,' saith the Lord;' and I will remove them, and
destroy the wisdom of the wise, and hide the understanding of the prudent.'
18. Deservedly too:
for you are neither wise nor prudent, but crafty and unscrupulous; wise only to
do evil, but utterly incompetent to know the hidden counsel of God, or the
faithful covenant of the Lord, or to find out the everlasting paths.
19. Therefore,
saith the Lord, I will raise up to Israel and to Judah the seed of men and the
seed of beasts.' And by Isaiah He speaks thus concerning another Israel: 'In
that day shall there be a third Israel among the Assyrians and the Egyptians
blessed in the land which the Lord of Sabaoth hath blessed, saying, blessed
shall my people in Egypt and in Assyria be, and Israel mine inheritance.'
20.
Since then God
blesses this people, and calls them Israel, and declares them to be His
inheritance, how is it that you repent not of the deception you practice on
yourselves, as if you alone were the Israel, and of execrating the people whom
God has blessed?
21.
For when He
speaks to Jerusalem and its environs, He thus added: 'And I will beget men upon
you, even my people Israel; and they shall inherit you, and you shall be a
possession for them; and you shall be no longer bereaved of them.'
22.
What, then?
says Trypho; "are you Israel? and speaks He such things of you?
If, indeed, so I replied to him, we had not entered into a lengthy
discussion on these topics, I might have doubted whether you ask this question
in ignorance;
23. But since we
have brought the matter to a conclusion by demonstration and with your assent, I
do not believe that you are ignorant of what I have just said, or desire again
mere contention, but that you are urging me to exhibit the same proof to these
men.
24. And in
compliance with the assent expressed in his eyes, I continued: Again in Isaiah,
if you have ears to hear it, God, speaking of Christ in parable, calls Him Jacob
and Israel. He speaks thus: 'Jacob is my servant, I will uphold Him; Israel is
mine elect, I will put my Spirit upon Him, and He shall bring forth judgment to
the Gentiles.
25.
He shall not
strive, nor cry, neither shall any one hear His voice in the street: a bruised
reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench; but He shall
bring forth judgment to truth: He shall shine, and shall not be broken till He
have set judgment on the earth. And in His name shall the Gentiles trust.'
26. As therefore
from the one man Jacob, who was surnamed Israel, all your nation has been called
Jacob and Israel; so we from Christ, who begat us unto God, like Jacob, and
Israel, and Judah, and Joseph, and David, are called and are the true sons of
God, and keep the commandments of Christ.
27. And when I saw
that they were perturbed because I said that we are the sons of God, I
anticipated their questioning, and said, Listen, sirs, how the Holy Ghost speaks
of this people, saying that they are all sons of the Highest; and how this very
Christ will be present in their assembly, rendering judgment to all men.
28. The words
spoken by David, according to your version of them are, thus: 'God stands in the
congregation of gods; He judges among the gods. How long do ye judge unjustly,
and accept the persons of the wicked? Judge for the orphan and the poor, and do
justice to the humble and needy. Deliver the needy, and save the poor out of the
hand of the wicked.
29. They know not,
neither have they understood; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of
the earth shall be shaken. I said, Ye are gods, and are all children of the Most
High. But ye die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
30.
Arise, O God!
judge the earth, for Thou shalt inherit all nations.' But in the version of the
Seventy it is written, 'Behold, ye die like men, and fall like one of the
princes, in order to manifest the disobedience of men, - I mean of Adam and Eve,
- and the fall of one of the princes, i.e., of him who was called the serpent,
who fell with a great overthrow, because he deceived Eve.
31.
But as my
discourse is not intended to touch on this point, but to prove to you that the
Holy Ghost reproaches men because they were made like God, free from suffering
and death, provided that they kept His commandments, and were deemed deserving
of the name of His sons. And yet
they, becoming like Adam and Eve, work out death for themselves;
32.
Let the
interpretation of the Psalm be held just as you wish, yet thereby it is
demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming "gods," and of
having power to become sons of the Highest; and shall be each by himself judged
and condemned like Adam and Eve.
33. Now I have
proved at length that Christ is called God. I wish, sirs," I said, "to
learn from you what is the force of the name Israel."
34.
And as they
were silent, I continued: I shall tell you what I know: for I do not think it
fight, when I know, not to speak; or, suspecting that you do know, and yet from
envy or from voluntary ignorance deceive yourselves, to be continually
solicitous; but I speak all things simply and candidly, as my Lord said:
35. 'A sower went
forth to sow the seed; and some fell by the wayside; and some among thorns, and
some on stony ground, and some on good ground.'
36. I must speak,
then, in the hope of finding good ground somewhere; since that Lord of mine, as
One strong and powerful, comes to demand back His own from all, land will not
condemn His steward if He recognizes that he, by the knowledge that the Lord is
powerful and has come to demand His own, has given it to every bank, and has not
dug for any cause whatsoever.
37. Accordingly the
name Israel signifies this, A man who overcomes power; for “Isra” is a man
overcoming, and “El” is power. And that Christ would act so when He became
man was foretold by the mystery of Jacob's wrestling with Him who appeared to
him, in that He ministered to the will of the Father, yet nevertheless is God,
in that He is the first-begotten of all creatures.
38. For when He
became man, as I previously remarked, the devil came to Him--i.e., that power
which is called the serpent and Satan--tempting Him, and striving to effect His
downfall by asking Him to worship him.
39.
But He
destroyed and overthrew the devil, having proved him to be wicked, in that he
asked to be worshipper as God, contrary to the Scripture; who is an apostate
from the will of God.
40. For He answers
him, 'It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shall
thou serve.' Then, overcome and convicted, the devil departed at that time. But
since our Christ was to be numbed, i.e., by pain and experience of suffering, He
made a previous intimation of this by touching Jacob's thigh, and causing it to
shrink.
41.
But Israel was
His name from the beginning, to which He altered the name of the blessed Jacob
when He blessed him with His own name, proclaiming thereby that all who through
Him have fled for refuge to the Father, constitute the blessed Israel.
42.
But you, having
understood none of this, and not being prepared to understand, since you are the
children of Jacob after the fleshly seed, expect that you shall be assuredly
saved. But that you deceive yourselves in such matters, this I have proven by
many words.
Chapter
34
1. But if you
knew, Trypho who He is that is called at one time the Angel of great counsel,
and a Man by Ezekiel, and like the Son of man by Daniel, and a Child by Isaiah,
and Christ and God to be worshipped by David, and Christ and a Stone by many,
and Wisdom by Solomon, and Joseph and Judah and a Star by Moses, and the East by
Zechariah, and the Suffering One and Jacob and Israel by Isaiah again, and a
Rod, and Flower, and Corner-Stone, and Son of God.
2. You would not
have blasphemed Him who has now come, and been born, and suffered, and ascended
to heaven; who shall also come again, and then your twelve tribes shall mourn.
For if you had understood what has been written by the prophets, you would not
have denied that He was God, Son of the only, un-begotten, unutterable God.
3. For Moses says
somewhere in Exodus the following: 'The Lord spoke to Moses, and said to him, I
am the Lord, and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, being their God;
and my name I revealed not to them, and I established my covenant with them.'
4.
And thus again
he says, 'A man wrestled with Jacob,' and asserts it was God; narrating that
Jacob said, 'I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.' And it is
recorded that he called the place where He wrestled with him, and blessed him,
the Face of God (Peniel).
5. And Moses says
that God appeared also to Abraham near the oak in Mature, when he was sitting at
the door of his tent at mid-day. Then
he goes on to say:
6. And he lifted
up his eyes and looked, and, behold, three men stood before him; and when he saw
them, he ran to meet them.' And after a little, one of them promises a son to
Abraham:
7. And wherefore
did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I of a surety bear a child while I am old? Is
anything impossible with God? At the time appointed I will return, according to
the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
8.
And they went
away from Abraham.' Again he speaks of them thus: 'And the men rose up from
thence, and looked toward Sodom.' Then to Abraham He who was and is again
speaks: 'I will not hide from Abraham, my servant, what I intend to do.'
9. And what
follows in the writings of Moses I quoted and explained; I said, that He, who is
described as God appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and the other
patriarchs, was appointed under the authority of the Father and Lord, and
ministers to His will.
10.
Then I went on
to say what I had not said before: And so, when the people desired to eat flesh,
and Moses had lost faith in Him, who also there is called the Angel, and who
promised that God would give them to satiety, He who is both God and the Angel,
sent by the Father, is described as saying and doing these things.
11. For thus the
Scripture says: 'And the Lord said to Moses Will the Lord's hand not be
sufficient? Thou shall know now whether my word shall conceal thee or not.'
12. And again, in
other words, it says: 'But the Lord spoke unto me, Thou shalt not go over this
Jordan: the Lord thy God, who goes before thy face, He shall cut off the
nations.'
13. These and other
such sayings are recorded by the lawgiver and by the prophets; and I suppose
that I have stated sufficiently, that wherever God says, 'God went up from
Abraham,' or, 'The Lord spoke to Moses,' and 'The Lord came down to behold the
tower which the sons of men had built,'
14.
Or when 'God
shut Noah into the ark,' you must not imagine that the un-begotten God Himself
came down or went up from any place. For the ineffable Father and Lord of all
neither has come to any place, nor walks, nor sleeps, nor rises up,
15. But remains in
His own place, wherever that is, quick to behold and quick to hear, having
neither eyes nor ears, but being of indescribable might; and He sees all things,
and knows all things, and none of us escapes His observation; and He is not
moved or confined to a spot in the whole world, for He existed before the world
was made.
16. How, then,
could He talk with any one, or be seen by any one, or appear on the smallest
portion of the earth, when the people at Sinai were not able to look even on the
glory of Him who was sent from Him; and Moses himself could not enter into the
tabernacle which he had erected, when it was filled with the glory of God; and
the priest could not endure to stand before the temple when Solomon conveyed the
ark into the house in Jerusalem which he had built for it?
17. Therefore
neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor any other man, saw the Father and
ineffable Lord of all, and also of Christ, but
Him who was according to His will His Son, being God, and the Angel
because He ministered to His will;
18. Who was pleased
to be born a man by the Virgin; who also was fire when He conversed with Moses
from the bush. Since, unless we thus comprehend the Scriptures, it must follow
that the Father and Lord of all had not been in heaven when it took place what
Moses wrote: 'And the Lord rained upon Sodom fire and brimstone from the Lord
out of heaven;'
19. And again, when
it is thus said by David: 'Lift up your gates, ye rulers; and be ye lift up, ye
everlasting gates; and the King of glory shall enter;' and again, when He says:
'The Lord says to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy
footstool.'
20. And that Christ
being Lord, and God the Son of God, and appearing formerly in power as Man, and
Angel, and in the glory of fire as at the bush, so also was manifested at the
judgment executed on Sodom, has been demonstrated fully by what has been said.
21. Then I repeated
once more all that I had previously quoted from Exodus, about the vision in the
bush, and the naming of Joshua (Jesus), and continued:
And do not suppose, sirs, that I am speaking superfluously when I repeat
these words frequently:
22. But it is
because I know that some wish to anticipate these remarks, and to say that the
power sent from the Father which appeared to Moses, or to Abraham, or to Jacob,
is called an Angel, because in coming to men; He is called Glory, and in a
vision, which cannot be called a birth of; is called Man, a human being, because
He appears strayed in such forms as the Father pleases; and they call Him the
Word, because He carries tidings from the Father to men:
23. And they
maintain that this power is indivisible and inseparable from the Father, just as
they say that the light of the sun on earth is indivisible and inseparable from
the sun in the heavens; as when it sinks, the light sinks along with it; so the
Father, when He chooses, they say, causes His power to spring forth, and when He
chooses, He makes it return to Himself.
24. In this way,
they teach, He made the angels. But it is proved that there are angels who
always exist, and are never reduced to that form out of which they sprang. And
that this power which the prophetic word calls God, as has been also amply
demonstrated, and Angel, is not numbered in name only like the light of the sun
but is indeed something numerically distinct.
25.
I have
discussed briefly in what has gone before; when I asserted that this power was
begotten from the Father, by His power and will, but not by abscission, as if
the essence of the Father were divided; as all other things partitioned and
divided are not the same after as before they were divided:
26. And, for the
sake of an example, I took the case of fires kindled from a fire, which we see
to be distinct from it, and yet that from which many can be kindled is by no
means made less, but remains the same.
27. And now I shall
again recite the words which I have spoken in proof of this point. When
Scripture says,' The Lord rained fire from the Lord out of heaven,' the
prophetic word indicates that there were two in number: One upon the earth, who,
it says, descended to behold the cry of Sodom; Another in heaven, who also is
Lord of the Lord on earth, as He is Father and God; the cause of His power and
of His being Lord and God.
28. Again, when the
Scripture records that God said in the beginning, Behold, Adam has become like
one of Us,' this phrase, 'like one of Us,' is also indicative of number; and the
words do not admit of a figurative meaning, as the sophists endeavor to affix on
them, who are neither able to tell nor to understand the truth.
29. And it is
written in the book of Wisdom: 'If I should tell you daily events, I would be
mindful to enumerate them from the beginning. The Lord created me the beginning
of His ways for His works.
30. From
everlasting He established me in the beginning, before He formed the earth, and
before He made the depths, and before the springs of waters came forth, before
the mountains were settled; He begets me before all the hills.'
31. When I repeated
these words, I added: You perceive, my hearers, if you bestow attention that,
the Scripture has declared that this Offspring was begotten by the Father
before all things created; and that which is begotten is numerically distinct
from that which begets, as anyone will admit.
32. And when all
had given consent, I said: I would now adduce some passages which I had not
recounted before. They are recorded by the faithful servant Moses in parable,
and are as follows: 'Rejoice, O ye heavens, with Him, and let all the angels of
God worship Him;'
33. And I added
what follows of the passage: 'Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people, and let
all the angels of God be strengthened in Him: for He avenges the blood of His
sons, and will avenge, and will recompense His enemies with vengeance, and will
recompense those that hate Him; and the Lord will purify the land of His
people.'
34.
And by these
words He declares that we, the nations, rejoice with His people,--to wit
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets, and, in short, all of that
people who are well-pleasing to God, according to what has been already agreed
on between us.
35. But we will not
receive it of all your nation; since we know from Isaiah that the members of
those who have transgressed shall be consumed by the worm and unquenchable fire,
remaining immortal; so that they become a spectacle to all flesh.
36. But in addition
to these, I wish to add some other passages from the very words of Moses, from
which you may understand that God has from of old dispersed all men according to
their kindred and tongues; and out of all kindred has taken to Himself your
kindred, a useless, disobedient, and faithless generation;
37. And has shown
that those who were selected out of every nation have obeyed His will through
Christ,--whom He calls also Jacob, and names Israel,--and these, then, as I
mentioned previously, must be Jacob and Israel.
38.
For when He
says, 'Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people,' He allots the same inheritance
to them, and does not call them by the same name; but when He says that they as
Gentiles rejoice with His people, He calls them Gentiles to reproach you. For
even as you provoked Him to anger by your idolatry, so also He has deemed those
who were idolaters worthy of knowing His will, and of inheriting His
inheritance.
39.
But I shall
quote the passage by which it is made known that God divided all the nations. It
is as follows: 'Ask thy father, and he will show thee; thine eiders, and they
will tell thee; when the Most High divided the nations, as He dispersed the sons
of Adam.
40.
He set the
bounds of the nations according to the number of the children of Israel; and the
Lord's portion became His people Jacob, and Israel was the lot of His
inheritance.'" And having said this, I added: "The Seventy have
translated it, 'He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the
angels of God.'
41. But because my
argument is again in nowise weakened by this, I have adopted your exposition.
And you yourselves, if you will confess the truth, must acknowledge that we, who
have been called by God through the despised and shameful mystery of the cross.
42. And endure all
torments rather than deny Christ even by word, through whom we are called to the
salvation prepared beforehand by the Father, are more faithful to God than you,
who were redeemed from Egypt with a high hand and a visitation of great glory,
when the sea was parted and left a dry passage for you.
43.
In which God
slew those who pursued you with much equipment, and splendid chariots, by
bringing the sea back upon them which had been made a way for your sakes; on
whom also a pillar of light shone, in order that you.
44.
More than any
other nation in the world, might possess a peculiar light, never-failing and
never-setting; for whom He rained manna as nourishment, fit for the heavenly
angels, in order that you might have no need to prepare your food;
45.
And the water
at Mara was made sweet; as a sign of Him that was to be crucified, as also in
the matter of the serpents which bit you, as well as in the extending of the
hands of Moses, and of Oshea being named Jesus (Joshua); when you fought against
Amalek:
46. Now it is clear
that the memorial of Amalek remained after the son of Nave (Nun): but He makes
it manifest through Jesus, who was crucified, of whom also those symbols were
fore-announcements of all that would happen to Him, how the demons would be
destroyed, and would dread His name.
47. And that all
principalities and kingdoms would fear Him; and that they who believe in Him out
of all nations would be shown as God-fearing and peaceful men; and the facts
already quoted by me, Trypho, indicate this.
48. Again, when you
desired flesh, so vast a quantity of quails was given you, that they could not
be told; for whom also water gushed from the rock; and a cloud followed you for
a shade from heat, and covering from cold.
49.
These declaring
the manner and signification of another and new heaven; the latchets of your
shoes did not break, and your shoes waxed not old, and your garments wore not
away, but even those of the children grew along with them.
Chapter
35
1. Yet after this
you made a calf, and were very zealous in committing fornication with the
daughters of strangers, and in serving idols. And again, when the land was given
up to you with so great a display of power, that you witnessed the sun stand
still in the heavens by the order of that man whose name was Jesus, and not go
down for thirty-six hours.
2. As well as all
the other miracles which were wrought for you as time served; and of these it
seems good to me now to speak of another, for it conduces to your hereby knowing
Jesus, whom we also know to have been Christ the Son of God, who was crucified,
and rose again, and ascended to heaven, and will come again to judge all men,
even up to Adam himself.
3. You are aware,
then, I continued, that when the ark of the testimony was seized by the enemies
of Ashdod, and a terrible and incurable malady had broken out among them.
4. They resolved
to place it on a cart to which they yoked cows that had recently calved, for the
purpose of ascertaining by trial whether or not they had been plagued by God's
power on account of the ark, and if God wished it to be taken back to the place
from which it had been carried away.
5. And when they
had done this, the cows, led by no man, went not to the place whence the ark had
been taken, but to the fields of a certain man whose name was Oshea, the same as
his whose name was altered to Jesus (Joshua), as has been previously mentioned,
who also led the people into the land and meted it out to them:
6. And when the
cows had come into these fields they remained there, showing to you thereby that
they were guided by the name of power; just as formerly the people who survived
of those that came out of Egypt, were guided into the land by him who had
received the name Jesus (Joshua), who before was called Oshea.
7. Now, although
these and all other such unexpected and marvelous works were seen and wrought
amongst by you at different times, yet you are convicted by the prophets of
having gone to such a length as offering your own children to demons;
8. And besides all
this, of having dared to do such things against Christ; as you still dare to do
them: for all which may it be granted to you to obtain mercy and salvation from
God and His Christ.
9.
For God,
knowing before that you would do such things, pronounced this curse upon you by
the prophet Isaiah: 'Woe unto their soul! they have devised evil counsel against
themselves, saying, Let us bind the righteous man, for he is distasteful to us.
10. Therefore they
shall eat the fruit of their own doings. Woe to the wicked! Evil according to
the works of his hands, shall befall him. O my people, your exactors glean you,
and those who extort from you shall rule over you.
11.
O my people,
they who call you blessed cause you to err, and disorder the way of your paths.
But now the Lord shall assist His people to judgment, and He shall enter into
judgment with the elders of the people and the princes thereof.
12.
But why have
you burnt up my vineyard? And why is the spoil of the poor found in your houses?
Why do you wrong my people, and put to shame the countenance of the humble?'
Again, in other words, the same prophet spake to the same effect: 'Woe unto them
that draw their iniquity as with a long cord, and their transgressions as with
the harness of an heifer's yoke:
13. Who say, Let
His speed come near, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we
may know it. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil! that put light
for darkness, and darkness for light! that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for
bitter!
14. Woe unto them
that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto those
that are mighty among you, who drink wine, who are men of strength, who mingle
strong drink! who justify the wicked for a reward, and take away justice from
the righteous!
15. Therefore, as
the stubble shall be burnt by the coal of fire, and utterly consumed by the
burning flame, their root shall be as wool, and their flower shall go up like
dust. For they would not have the law of the Lord of Sabaoth, but despised the
word of the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
16. And the Lord of
Sabaoth was very angry, and laid His hands upon them, and smote them; and He was
provoked against the mountains, and their carcasses were in the midst like dung
on the road. And for all this they have not repented, but their hand is still
high.'
17. For verily your
hand is high to commit evil, because ye slew the Christ, and do not repent of
it; but so far from that, ye hate and murder us who have believed through Him in
the God and Father of all, as often as ye can; and ye curse Him without ceasing,
as well as those who side with Him;
18. Wile all of us
pray for you, and for all men, as our Christ and Lord taught us to do, when He
enjoined us to pray even for our enemies, and to love them that hate us, and to
bless them that curse us.
19. If, then, the
teaching of the prophets and of Himself moves you, it is better for you to
follow God than your imprudent and blind masters, who even till this time permit
each man to have four or five wives;
20. Ad if any one
saw beautiful woman and desire to have her, they quoted the doings of Jacob, and
of the other patriarchs, and maintain that it is not wrong to do such things;
for they are miserably ignorant in this matter.
21. For, as I
before said, certain dispensations of weighty mysteries were accomplished in
each act of this sort. For in the marriages of Jacob I shall mention what
dispensation and prophecy were accomplished, in order that you may thereby know
that your teachers never looked at the divine motive which prompted each act,
but only at the corrupting passions.
22. Attend
therefore to what I say. The marriages of Jacob were types of that which Christ
was about to accomplish. For it was not lawful for Jacob to marry two sisters at
once. And he serves Laban for the daughters; and being deceived in the younger,
he again served seven years.
23. Now Leah is
your people and synagogue; but Rachel is our Church. And for these, and for the
servants in both, Christ even now serves.
24. For while Noah
gave to the two sons the seed of the third as servants, now on the other hand
Christ has come to restore both the free sons and the servants amongst them,
conferring the same honor on all of them who keep His commandments;
25.
Even as the
children of the free women and the children of the bond women born to Jacob were
all sons, and equal in dignity. And it was foretold what each should be
according to rank and according to fore-knowledge.
26. Jacob served
Laban for speckled and many-spotted sheep; and Christ served, even to the
slavery of the cross, for the various and many-formed races of mankind,
acquiring them by the blood and mystery of the cross.
27. Leah was
weak-eyed; for the eyes of your souls are excessively weak. Rachel stole the
gods of Laban, and has hid them to this day; and we have lost our paternal and
material gods. Jacob was hated for all time by his brother; and we now, and our
Lord Himself, are hated by you and by all men, though we are brothers by nature.
28. Jacob was
called Israel; and Israel has been demonstrated to be the Christ, who is, and is
called, Jesus. And when Scripture
says, 'I am the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, who have made known Israel
your King,' will you not understand that truly Christ is the everlasting King?
29.
For you are
aware that Jacob the son of Isaac was never a king. And therefore Scripture
again, explaining to us, says what king is meant by Jacob and Israel: 'Jacob is
my Servant, I will uphold Him; and Israel is mine Elect, my soul shall receive
Him.
30. I have given
Him my Spirit; and He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry, and His voice shall not be heard without. The bruised reed He shall not
break, and the smoking flax He shall not quench, until He shall bring forth
judgment to victory.
31.
He shall shine,
and shall not be broken, until He set judgment on the earth. And in His name
shall the Gentiles trust.' Then is it Jacob the patriarch in whom the Gentiles
and yourselves shall trust? Or is it not Christ?
32. As, therefore
Christ is the Israel and the Jacob, even so we, who have been quarried out from
the bowels of Christ, are the true Israelite race. But let us attend rather to
the very word: 'And I will bring forth,' He says, 'the seed out of Jacob, and
out of Judah: and it shall inherit My holy mountain;
33. And Mine Elect
and My servants shall possess the inheritance, and shall dwell there; and there
shall be folds of flocks in the thicket, and the valley of Achor shall be a
resting-place of cattle for the people who have sought Me.
34.
But as for you,
who forsake Me, and forget My holy mountain, and prepare a table for demons, and
fill out drink for the demon, I shall give you to the sword.
35. You shall all
fall with a slaughter; for I called you, and you hearkened not, and did evil
before me, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.' Such are the words of
Scripture; understand, therefore, that the seed of Jacob now referred to is
something else, and not, as may be supposed, spoken of your people.
36. For it is not possible for the seed of Jacob to leave an entrance for the descendants of Jacob, or for God to have accepted the very same persons whom He had reproached with unfitness for the inheritance, and then to promise it to them again.
37.
But as there
the prophet says, 'And now, O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light
of the Lord; for He has sent away His people, the house of Jacob, because their
land was full, as at the first, of soothsayers and divinations.
38.
Even so it is
necessary for us here to observe that there are two seeds of Judah, and two
races, as there are two houses of Jacob: the one begotten by blood and flesh,
the other by faith and the Spirit.
39. For you see how
He now addresses the people, saying a little before: 'As the gape shah be found
in the cluster, and they will say, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it; so
will I do for My servant's sake: for His sake I will not destroy them all.'
40. And thereafter
He adds: 'And I shall bring forth the seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah.' It
is plain then that if He thus be angry with them, and threaten to leave very few
of them, He promises to bring forth certain others, who shall dwell in His
mountain.
41. But these are
the persons whom He said He would sow and beget. For you neither suffer Him when
He calls you, nor hear Him when He speaks to you, but have done evil in the
presence of the Lord.
42.
But the highest
pitch of your wickedness lies in this, that you hate the Righteous One, and slew
Him; and so treat those who have received from Him all that they are and have,
and who are pious, righteous, and humane.
43. Therefore 'woe
unto their soul,' says' the Lord, 'for they have devised an evil counsel against
themselves, saying, Let us take away the righteous, for he is distasteful to
us.' For indeed you are not in the habit of sacrificing to Baal, as were your
fathers, or of placing cakes in groves and on high places for the host of
heaven: but you have not accepted God's Christ.
44.
For he who
knows not Him, knows not the will of God; and he who insults and hates Him,
insults and hates Him that sent Him. And whoever believes not in Him, believes
not the declarations of the prophets, who preached and proclaimed Him to all.
Chapter
36
Justin exhorts the Jews to be converted.
1. Say no evil
thing, my brothers, against Him that was crucified, and treat not the stripes
wherewith all may be healed scornfully, even as we are healed. For it will be
well if, persuaded by the Scriptures, you are circumcised from hard-heartedness:
2. Not that
circumcision which you have from the tenets that are put into you; for that was
given for a sign, and not for a work of righteousness, as the Scriptures compel
you. Assent, therefore, and pour no ridicule on the Son of God; obey not the
Pharisaic teachers.
3. And scoff not
at the King of Israel, as the rulers of your synagogues teach you to do after
your prayers: for if he that touches those who are not pleasing to God, is as
one that touches the apple of God's eye, how much more so is he that touches His
beloved! And that this is He, has been sufficiently demonstrated.
4. And as they
kept silence, I continued: My friends, I now refer to the Scriptures as the
Seventy have interpreted them; for when I quoted them formerly as you possess
them, I was testing your disposition.
5. For, mentioning
the Scripture which says, 'Woe unto them! for they have devised evil counsel
against themselves, saying: 'Let us take away the righteous, for he is
distasteful to us;' whereas at the commencement of the discussion I added what
your version has: 'Let us bind the righteous, for he is distaste fill to us.'
6. But you had
been busy about some other matter, and seem to have listened to the words
without attending to them. But now, since the day is drawing to a close, for the
sun is about to set, I shall add one remark to what I have said, and conclude.
7. I have indeed
made the very same remark already, but I think it would be right to bestow some
consideration on it again. You
know then, sirs, I said, that God has said in Isaiah to Jerusalem: 'I saved thee
in the deluge of Noah.' By this which God said was meant that the mystery of
saved men appeared in the deluge.
8. For righteous
Noah, along with the other mortals at the deluge, i.e., with his own wife, his
three sons and their wives, being eight in number, were a symbol of the eighth
day, wherein Christ appeared when He rose from the dead, forever the first in
power.
9. For Christ,
being the first-born of every creature, became again the chief of another race
regenerated by Himself through water, and faith, and wood, containing the
mystery of the cross; even as Noah was saved by wood when he rode over the
waters with his household.
10. Accordingly,
when the prophet says, 'I saved thee in the times of Noah,' as I have already
remarked, he addresses the people who are equally faithful to God, and possess
the same signs. For when Moses had the rod in his hands, he led your nation
through the sea.
11. And you believe
that this was spoken to your nation only, or to the land. But as the Scripture
says, the whole earth was inundated, and the water rose in height fifteen cubits
above all the mountains: so that it is evident this was not spoken to the land,
but to the people who obeyed Him:
12. For whom He had
also before prepared a resting-place in Jerusalem, as previously demonstrated by
all the symbols of the deluge; I mean, by water, faith, and wood, those who are
afore-prepared, and who repent of the sins which they have committed, shall
escape from the impending judgment of God.
13. For another
mystery was accomplished and predicted in the days of Noah, of which you are not
aware. It is this: in the blessings wherewith Noah blessed his two sons, and in
the curse pronounced on his son's son.
14. For the Spirit
of prophecy would not curse the son that had been blessed by God along with his
brothers. But since the punishment of the sin would cleave to the whole descent
of the son that mocked at his father's nakedness, he made the curse originate
with his son.
15. Now, in what he
said, he foretold that the descendants of Shem would keep in retention the
property and dwellings of Canaan: And again that the descendants of Japheth
would take possession of the property of which Shem's descendants had
dispossessed Canaan's descendants; and spoil the descendants of Shem, even as
they plundered the sons of Canaan.
16. And listen to
the way in which it has so come to pass. For you, who have derived your lineage
from Shem, invaded the territory of the sons of Canaan by the will of God; and
you possessed it. And it is manifest that the sons of Japheth, having invaded
you in turn by the judgment of God, have taken your land from you, and have
possessed it.
17. Thus it is
written: 'And Noah awoke from the wine, and knew what his younger son had done
unto him; and he said, Cursed be Canaan, the servant; a servant shall he be unto
his brethren.
18.
And he said,
Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. May the Lord
enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the houses of Shem; and let Canaan be his
servant.'
19. Accordingly, as
two peoples were blessed,--those from Shem, and those from Japheth,--and as the
offspring of Shem were decreed first to possess the dwellings of Canaan, and the
offspring of Japheth were predicted as in turn receiving the same possessions.
20. And to the two
peoples there was the one people of Canaan handed over for servants; so Christ
has come according to the power given Him from the Almighty Father, and
summoning men to friendship, and blessing, and repentance, and dwelling
together, has promised, as has already been proved, that there shall be a future
possession for all the saints in this same land.
21. And hence all
men everywhere, whether bond or free, who believe in Christ, and recognize the
truth in His own words and those of His prophets, know that they shall be with
Him in that land, and inherit everlasting and incorruptible good.
22. Hence also
Jacob, as I remarked before, being himself a type of Christ, had married the two
handmaids of his two free wives, and of them begat sons, for the purpose of
indicating beforehand that Christ would receive even all those who amongst
Japheth's race are descendants of Canaan, equally with the free, and would have
the children fellow-heirs.
23. And we are
such; but you cannot comprehend this, because you cannot drink of the living
fountain of God, but of broken cisterns which can hold no water, as the
Scripture says. But they are cisterns broken, and holding no water, which your
own teachers have dug, as the Scripture also expressly asserts, 'teaching for
doctrines the commandments of men.'
24.
And besides,
they beguile themselves and you, supposing that the everlasting kingdom will be
assuredly given to those of the dispersion who are of Abraham after the flesh,
although they be sinners, and faithless, and disobedient towards God, which the
Scriptures has proven is not the case.
25. For if so,
Isaiah would never have said this: 'And unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a
seed, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.' And Ezekiel: 'Even if Noah,
and Jacob, and Daniel were to pray for sons or daughters, their request should
not be granted.'
26.
But neither
shall the father perish for the son, nor the son for the father; but every one
for his own sin, and each shall be saved for his own righteousness. And again
Isaiah says: 'They shall look on the carcasses of them that have transgressed:
their worm shall not cease, and their fire shall not be quenched; and they shall
be a spectacle to all flesh.'
27. And our Lord,
according to the will of Him that sent Him, who is the Father and Lord of all,
would not have said, 'They shall come from the east, and from the west, and
shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But
the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.'
28.
Furthermore, I
have proved in what has preceded," that those who were foreknown to be
unrighteous, whether men or angels, are not made wicked by God's fault, but each
man by his own fault is what he will appear to be.
29. But that you
may not have a pretext for saying that Christ must have been crucified, and that
those who transgressed must have been among your nation, and that the matter
could not have been otherwise, I said briefly by anticipation, that God, wishing
men and angels to follow His will, resolved to create them free to do
righteousness;
30. And possessing
reason, that they may know by whom they are created, and through whom they, not
existing formerly, do now exist; and with a law that they should be judged by
Him, if they do anything contrary to right reason: and of ourselves we, men and
angels, shall be convicted of having acted sinfully, unless we repent
beforehand.
31. But if the word
of God foretells that some angels and men shall be certainly punished, it did so
because it foreknew that they would be unchangeable, but not because God had
created them so. So that if they repent, all who wish for it can obtain mercy
from God:
32. And the
Scripture foretells that they shall be blessed, saying, 'Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputes not sin;' that is, having repented of his sins, that he
may receive remission of them from God; and not as you deceive yourselves.
33. And some others
who resemble you in this, who say, that even though they be sinners, but know
God, the Lord will not impute sin to them. The proof of this is the fall of
David, which happened through his boasting, which was forgiven when he so
mourned and wept, as it is written.
34. But if even to
such a man no remission was granted before repentance, and only when this great
king, and anointed one, and prophet, mourned and conducted himself so, how can
the impure and utterly abandoned ones, if they weep not, and mourn not, and
repent not, entertain the hope that the Lord will not impute to them sin?
35. And this one
fall of David, in the matter of Uriah's wife, proves, so I said, that the
patriarchs had many wives, not to commit fornication, but that a certain
dispensation and all mysteries might be accomplished by them;
36. Since, if it
were allowable to take any wife, or as many wives as one chooses, and how he
chooses, which the men of your nation do over all the earth wherever they
sojourn, or wherever they have been sent, taking women under the name of
marriage, much more would David have been permitted to do this.
37. When I had said
this, my dearest Marcus Pompeii, I came to an end.
Then Trypho, after a little delay, said,
38. You see that it
was not intentionally that we came to discuss these points. And I confess that I
have been particularly pleased with the conference; and I think that these are
of quite the same opinion as myself. For we have found more than we expected,
and more than it was possible to have expected.
39.
And if we could
do this more frequently, we should be much helped in the searching of the
Scriptures themselves. But since, he said, you are on the eve of departure, and
daily expect to set sail, do not hesitate to remember us as friends when you are
gone.
40. For my part, I
replied, if I had remained, I would have wished to do the same thing daily. But
now, since I expect, with God's will and aid to set sail, I exhort you to give
all diligence in this very great struggle for your own salvation, and to be
earnest in setting a higher value on the Christ of the Almighty God than on your
own teachers.
41. After this they
left me, wishing me safety in my voyage, and from every misfortune. And I,
praying for them, said, I can wish no better thing for you, sirs, than this,
that, recognizing in this way that intelligence is given to every man, you may
be of the same opinion as ourselves, and believe that Jesus is the Christ of
God.