Chapter XIII.—Argument from the Destruction of Jerusalem and Desolation of Judea.

Therefore, since the sons of Israel affirm that we err in receiving the Christ, who is already come, let us put in a demurrer against them out of the Scriptures themselves, to the effect that the Christ who was the theme of prediction is come; albeit by the times of Daniel’s prediction we have proved that the Christ is come already who was the theme of announcement. Now it behoved Him to be born in Bethlehem of Judah. For thus it is written in the prophet: “And thou, Bethlehem, are not the least in the leaders of Judah: for out of thee shall issue a Leader who shall feed my People Israel.”258    Mic. v. 2; Matt. ii. 3–6. Tertullian’s Latin agrees rather with the Greek of St. Matthew than with the LXX. But if hitherto he has not been born, what “leader” was it who was thus announced as to proceed from the tribe of Judah, out of Bethlehem? For it behoves him to proceed from the tribe of Judah and from Bethlehem. But we perceive that now none of the race of Israel has remained in Bethlehem; and (so it has been) ever since the interdict was issued forbidding any one of the Jews to linger in the confines of the very district, in order that this prophetic utterance also should be perfectly fulfilled:  “Your land is desert, your cities burnt up by fire,”—that is, (he is foretelling) what will have happened to them in time of war “your region strangers shall eat up in your sight, and it shall be desert and subverted by alien peoples.”259    See Isa. i. 7. And in another place it is thus said through the prophet: “The King with His glory ye shall see,”—that is, Christ, doing deeds of power in the glory of God the Father;260    Comp. John v. 43; x. 37, 38. “and your eyes shall see the land from afar,”261    Isa. xxxiii. 17.—which is what you do, being prohibited, in reward of your deserts, since the storming of Jerusalem, to enter into your land; it is permitted you merely to see it with your eyes from afar: “your soul,” he says, “shall meditate terror,”262    Isa. xxxiii. 18.—namely, at the time when they suffered the ruin of themselves.263    Comp. the “failing eyes” in the passage from Deuteronomy given in c. xi., if “eyes” is to be taken as the subject here. If not, we have another instance of the slipshod writing in which this treatise abounds. How, therefore, will a “leader” be born from Judea, and how far will he “proceed from Bethlehem,” as the divine volumes of the prophets do plainly announce; since none at all is left there to this day of (the house of) Israel, of whose stock Christ could be born?

Now, if (according to the Jews) He is hitherto not come, when He begins to come whence will He be anointed?264    As His name “Christ” or “Messiah” implies. For the Law enjoined that, in captivity, it was not lawful for the unction of the royal chrism to be compounded.265    Comp. Ex. xxx. 22–33. But, if there is no longer “unction” there266    i.e., in Jerusalem or Judea. as Daniel prophesied (for he says, “Unction shall be exterminated”), it follows that they267    The Jews. no longer have it, because neither have they a temple where was the “horn”268    Comp. 1 Kings (3 Kings in LXX.) i. 39, where the Eng. ver. has “an horn;” the LXX. τὸ κέρας, “the horn;” which at that time, of course, was in David’s tabernacle (2 Sam.—2 Kings in LXX.—vi. 17,) for “temple” there was yet none. from which kings were wont to be anointed.  If, then, there is no unction, whence shall be anointed the “leader” who shall be born in Bethlehem? or how shall he proceed “from Bethlehem,” seeing that of the seed of Israel none at all exists in Bethlehem.

A second time, in fact, let us show that Christ is already come, (as foretold) through the prophets, and has suffered, and is already received back in the heavens, and thence is to come accordingly as the predictions prophesied. For, after His advent, we read, according to Daniel, that the city itself had to be exterminated; and we recognise that so it has befallen. For the Scripture says thus, that “the city and the holy place are simultaneously exterminated together with the leader,”269    Dan. ix. 26.—undoubtedly (that Leader) who was to proceed “from Bethlehem,” and from the tribe of “Judah.” Whence, again, it is manifest that “the city must simultaneously be exterminated” at the time when its “Leader” had to suffer in it, (as foretold) through the Scriptures of the prophets, who say: “I have outstretched my hands the whole day unto a People contumacious and gainsaying Me, who walketh in a way not good, but after their own sins.”270    See Isa. lxv. 2; Rom. x. 21. And in the Psalms, David says: “They exterminated my hands and feet: they counted all my bones; they themselves, moreover, contemplated and saw me, and in my thirst slaked me with vinegar.”271    Ps. xxii. 16, 17 (xxi. 17, 18, in LXX.), and lxix. 21 (lxviii. 22 in LXX.). These things David did not suffer, so as to seem justly to have spoken of himself; but the Christ who was crucified.  Moreover, the “hands and feet,” are not “exterminated,”272    i.e., displaced, dislocated. except His who is suspended on a “tree.”  Whence, again, David said that “the Lord would reign from the tree:”273    See c. x. above. for elsewhere, too, the prophet predicts the fruit of this “tree,” saying “The earth hath given her blessings,”274    See Ps. lxvii. 6 (lxvi. 7 in LXX.), lxxxv. 12 (lxxxiv. 13 in LXX.).—of course that virgin-earth, not yet irrigated with rains, nor fertilized by showers, out of which man was of yore first formed, out of which now Christ through the flesh has been born of a virgin; “and the tree,”275    “Lignum,” as before. he says, “hath brought his fruit,”276    See Joel ii. 22.—not that “tree” in paradise which yielded death to the protoplasts, but the “tree” of the passion of Christ, whence life, hanging, was by you not believed!277    See c. xi. above, and the note there. For this “tree” in a mystery,278    Sacramento. it was of yore wherewith Moses sweetened the bitter water; whence the People, which was perishing of thirst in the desert, drank and revived;279    See Ex. xv. 22–26. just as we do, who, drawn out from the calamities of the heathendom280    Sæculi. in which we were tarrying perishing with thirst (that is, deprived of the divine word), drinking, “by the faith which is on Him,”281    See Acts xxvi. 18, ad fin. the baptismal water of the “tree” of the passion of Christ, have revived,—a faith from which Israel has fallen away, (as foretold) through Jeremiah, who says, “Send, and ask exceedingly whether such things have been done, whether nations will change their gods (and these are not gods!). But My People hath changed their glory: whence no profit shall accrue to them: the heaven turned pale thereat” (and when did it turn pale? undoubtedly when Christ suffered), “and shuddered,” he says, “most exceedingly;”282    See Jer. ii. 10–12. and “the sun grew dark at mid-day:”283    See Amos viii. 9, as before, in c.x. (and when did it “shudder exceedingly” except at the passion of Christ, when the earth also trembled to her centre, and the veil of the temple was rent, and the tombs were burst asunder?284    See Matt. xxvii. 45, 50–52; Mark xv. 33, 37, 38, Luke xxiii. 44, 45. “because these two evils hath My People done; Me,” He says, “they have quite forsaken, the fount of water of life,285    ὑδατος ζωῆς in the LXX. here (ed. Tischendorf, who quotes the Cod. Alex. as reading, however, ὑδατος ζῶντος). Comp. Rev. xxii. 1, 17, and xxi. 6; John vii. 37–39. (The reference, it will be seen, is still to Jer. ii. 10–13; but the writer has mixed up words of Amos therewith.) and they have digged for themselves worn-out tanks, which will not be able to contain water.” Undoubtedly, by not receiving Christ, the “fount of water of life,” they have begun to have “worn-out tanks,” that is, synagogues for the use of the “dispersions of the Gentiles,”286    Comp. The τὴν διασπορὰν τῶν ῾Ελλήνων of John vii. 35; and see 1 Pet. i. 1. in which the Holy Spirit no longer lingers, as for the time past He was wont to tarry in the temple before the advent of Christ, who is the true temple of God. For, that they should withal suffer this thirst of the Divine Spirit, the prophet Isaiah had said, saying: “Behold, they who serve Me shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; they who serve Me shall drink, but ye shall thirst, and from general tribulation of spirit shall howl: for ye shall transmit your name for a satiety to Mine elect, but you the Lord shall slay; but for them who serve Me shall be named a new name, which shall be blessed in the lands.”287    See Isa. lxv. 13–16 in LXX.

Again, the mystery of this “tree”288    Hujus ligni sacramentum. we read as being celebrated even in the Books of the Reigns. For when the sons of the prophets were cutting “wood”289    Lignum. with axes on the bank of the river Jordan, the iron flew off and sank in the stream; and so, on Elisha290    Helisæo. Comp. Luke iv. 27. the prophet’s coming up, the sons of the prophets beg of him to extract from the stream the iron which had sunk. And accordingly Elisha, having taken “wood,” and cast it into that place where the iron had been submerged, forthwith it rose and swam on the surface,291    The careless construction of leaving the nominative “Elisha” with no verb to follow it is due to the original, not to the translator. and the “wood” sank, which the sons of the prophets recovered.292    See 2 Kings vi. 1–7 (4 Kings vi. 1–7 in LXX). It is not said, however, that the wood sank. Whence they understood that Elijah’s spirit was presently conferred upon him.293    This conclusion they had drawn before, and are not said to have drawn, consequently, upon this occasion. See 2 Kings (4 Kings in LXX.) ii. 16. What is more manifest than the mystery294    Sacramento. of this “wood,”—that the obduracy of this world295    “Sæculi,” or perhaps here “heathendom.” had been sunk in the profundity of error, and is freed in baptism by the “wood” of Christ, that is, of His passion; in order that what had formerly perished through the “tree” in Adam, should be restored through the “tree” in Christ?296    For a similar argument, see Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo? l. i. c. iii. sub fin. while we, of course, who have succeeded to, and occupy, the room of the prophets, at the present day sustain in the world297    Sæculo. that treatment which the prophets always suffered on account of divine religion: for some they stoned, some they banished; more, however, they delivered to mortal slaughter,298    Mortis necem.—a fact which they cannot deny.299    Comp. Acts vii. 51, 52; Heb. xi. 32–38.

This “wood,” again, Isaac the son of Abraham personally carried for his own sacrifice, when God had enjoined that he should be made a victim to Himself. But, because these had been mysteries300    Sacramenta. which were being kept for perfect fulfilment in the times of Christ, Isaac, on the one hand, with his “wood,” was reserved, the ram being offered which was caught by the horns in the bramble;301    See Gen. xxii. 1–14. Christ, on the other hand, in His times, carried His “wood” on His own shoulders, adhering to the horns of the cross, with a thorny crown encircling His head. For Him it behoved to be made a sacrifice on behalf of all Gentiles, who “was led as a sheep for a victim, and, like a lamb voiceless before his shearer, so opened not His mouth” (for He, when Pilate interrogated Him, spake nothing302    See Matt. xxvii. 11–14; Mark xv. 1–5; John xix. 8–12.); for “in humility His judgment was taken away:  His nativity, moreover, who shall declare?” Because no one at all of human beings was conscious of the nativity of Christ at His conception, when as the Virgin Mary was found pregnant by the word of God; and because “His life was to be taken from the land.”303    See Isa. liii. 7, 8. Why, accordingly, after His resurrection from the dead, which was effected on the third day, did the heavens receive Him back? It was in accordance with a prophecy of Hosea, uttered on this wise:  “Before daybreak shall they arise unto Me, saying, Let us go and return unto the Lord our God, because Himself will draw us out and free us. After a space of two days, on the third day”304    Oehler refers to Hos. vi. 1; add 2 (ad init.).—which is His glorious resurrection—He received back into the heavens (whence withal the Spirit Himself had come to the Virgin305    See Luke i. 35.) Him whose nativity and passion alike the Jews have failed to acknowledge. Therefore, since the Jews still contend that the Christ is not yet come, whom we have in so many ways approved306    For this sense of the word “approve,” comp. Acts ii. 22, Greek and English, and Phil. i. 10, Greek and English. to be come, let the Jews recognise their own fate,—a fate which they were constantly foretold as destined to incur after the advent of the Christ, on account of the impiety with which they despised and slew Him. For first, from the day when, according to the saying of Isaiah, “a man cast forth his abominations of gold and silver, which they made to adore with vain and hurtful (rites),”307    See Isa. ii. 20.—that is, ever since we Gentiles, with our breast doubly enlightened through Christ’s truth, cast forth (let the Jews see it) our idols,—what follows has likewise been fulfilled. For “the Lord of Sabaoth hath taken away, among the Jews from Jerusalem,” among the other things named, “the wise architect” too,308    See Isa. iii. 1, 3; and comp. 1 Cor. iii. 10; Eph. ii. 20, 21; 1 Pet. ii. 4–8, and many similar passages. who builds the church, God’s temple, and the holy city, and the house of the Lord. For thenceforth God’s grace desisted (from working) among them. And “the clouds were commanded not to rain a shower upon the vineyard of Sorek,”309    Comp. Isa. v. 2 in LXX. and Lowth.—the clouds being celestial benefits, which were commanded not to be forthcoming to the house of Israel; for it “had borne thorns”—whereof that house of Israel had wrought a crown for Christ—and not “righteousness, but a clamour,”—the clamour whereby it had extorted His surrender to the cross.310    Comp. Isa. v. 6, 7, with Matt. xxvii. 20–25, Mark xv. 8–15, Luke xxiii. 13–25, John xix. 12–16. And thus, the former gifts of grace being withdrawn, “the law and the prophets were until John,”311    Matt. xi. 13; Luke xvi. 16. and the fishpool of Bethsaida312    See John v. 1–9; and comp. de Bapt. c. v., and the note there. until the advent of Christ: thereafter it ceased curatively to remove from Israel infirmities of health; since, as the result of their perseverance in their frenzy, the name of the Lord was through them blasphemed, as it is written: “On your account the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles:”313    See Isa. lii. 5; Ezek. xxxvi. 20, 23; Rom. ii. 24. (The passage in Isaiah in the LXX. agrees with Rom. ii. 24.) for it is from them that the infamy (attached to that name) began, and (was propagated during) the interval from Tiberius to Vespasian. And because they had committed these crimes, and had failed to understand that Christ “was to be found”314    See Isa. lv. 6, 7. in “the time of their visitation,”315    See Luke xix. 41–44. their land has been made “desert, and their cities utterly burnt with fire, while strangers devour their region in their sight: the daughter of Sion is derelict, as a watch-tower in a vineyard, or as a shed in a cucumber garden,”—ever since the time, to wit, when “Israel knew not” the Lord, and “the People understood Him not;” but rather “quite forsook, and provoked unto indignation, the Holy One of Israel.”316    See Isa. i. 7, 8, 4. So, again, we find a conditional threat of the sword: “If ye shall have been unwilling, and shall not have been obedient, the glaive shall eat you up.”317    Isa. i. 20. Whence we prove that the sword was Christ, by not hearing whom they perished; who, again, in the Psalm, demands of the Father their dispersion, saying, “Disperse them in Thy power;”318    See Ps. lix. 11 (lviii. 12 in LXX.) who, withal, again through Isaiah prays for their utter burning. “On My account,” He says, “have these things happened to you; in anxiety shall ye sleep.”319    See Isa. l. 11 in LXX.

Since, therefore, the Jews were predicted as destined to suffer these calamities on Christ’s account, and we find that they have suffered them, and see them sent into dispersion and abiding in it, manifest it is that it is on Christ’s account that these things have befallen the Jews, the sense of the Scriptures harmonizing with the issue of events and of the order of the times. Or else, if Christ is not yet come, on whose account they were predicted as destined thus to suffer, when He shall have come it follows that they will thus suffer. And where will then be a daughter of Sion to be derelict, who now has no existence? where the cities to be exust, which are already exust and in heaps? where the dispersion of a race which is now in exile? Restore to Judea the condition which Christ is to find; and (then, if you will), contend that some other (Christ) is coming.

CAPUT XIII.

Igitur, quoniam filii Israel affirmant nos errare recipiendo Christum, qui jam venit, praescribamus eis ex ipsis Scripturis jam venisse Christum qui praedicabatur; quamvis ex temporibus Danielis praedicantis probaverimus jam venisse Christum, qui nuntiabatur. Nasci enim eum oportuit in Bethlehem Judae; sic enim scriptum est in propheta : Et tu Bethlehem, non minima es in ducibus Juda: ex te enim exiet dux qui pascat populum meum Israel (Mich., V, 1). Si autem adhuc natus non est qui processurus dux de tribu Juda ex Bethlehem nuntiabatur, oportet 0633C enim eum de tribu Juda et a Bethlehem procedere; animadvertimus autem nunc neminem de genere Israel in civitate Bethlehem remansisse, et exinde quod interdictum est ne in confinio ipsius regionis demoretur quisquam Judaeorum, ut hoc quoque esset adimpletum per prophetam: Terra vestra deserta, civitates vestrae igni exustae, id est quod belli tempore eis evenerit; regionem vestram in conspectu vestro exteri comedent, et deserta et subversa erit a populis alienis (Is., I, 7). Et alio loco sic per prophetam dicitur: Regem cum claritate videbitis, id est Christum facientem 0634A virtutes in gloria Dei patris, et oculi vestri videbunt terram de longinquo (Is., XXIII, 17): quod vobis pro meritis vestris post expugnationem Hierusalem, prohibitis ingredi in terram vestram, de longinquo eam oculis tantum videre permissum est. Anima, inquit, vestra meditabitur timorem (Ibid., 13). scilicet quo tempore excidium sui passi sunt. Quomodo igitur nascetur dux de Judaea, et quatenus procedet de Bethlehem, sicut divina prophetarum volumina nuntiant, cum nullus omnino sit illic in hodiernum derelictus ex Israel, cujus ex stirpe possit nasci Christus? Si enim, secundum Judaeos, adhuc non venit , cum venire coeperit, unde ungetur? Lex enim praecepit, in captivitate non licere unctionem chrismatis regalis confici. Si autem jam nec unctio 0634B est illis, ut Daniel prophetavit; dicit enim: Exterminabitur unctio (Dan., IX, 27): ergo jam non est illic unctio, quia nec templum ubi erat cornu de quo reges ungebantur. Si ergo non est unctio, unde ungetur dux qui nascetur in Bethlehem? aut quomodo procedet de Bethlehem, cum de germine Israel nullus omnino sit in Bethlehem? Iterato denique ostendamus, et jam Christum secundum prophetas, et passum, et in coelis jam receptum, et inde venturum secundum praedicationes prophetarum. Nam post adventum ejus, secundum Danielem, quod ipsa civitas exterminari haberet legimus, et ita factum recognoscimus. Dicit enim Scriptura: Sic et civitatem et sanctum simul exterminari cum duce (Ibid.), indubitate, qui de Bethlehem et de tribu Juda esset 0634C processurus. Unde et manifestum est quod civitas simul eo tempore exterminari deberet, cum ducator ejus in ea pati haberet, secundum scripturas prophetarum, dicentium: Expandi manus meas tota die ad populum contumacem contradicentem mihi, qui ambulant viam non bonam, sed post peccata sua (Is., LXV, 2). Et in Psalmis dicit: Exterminaverunt manus meas et pedes, dinumeraverunt omnia ossa mea. Ipsi autem contemplati sunt et viderunt me: et, In siti mea potaverunt me aceto (Psal. XXI, 69, 22). Haec David passus non est, ut de se merito dixisse 0635A videatur, sed Christus qui crucifixus est. Manus autem et pedes non exterminantur, nisi ejus qui a ligno suspenditur. Unde et ipse David regnaturum ex ligno Dominum dicebat (Psal. XCV, 10): nam et alibi propheta ligni hujus fructum praedicat dicens: Terra dedit benedictiones suas (Psal. LXVI. 7). Utique illa terra virgo nondum pluviis rigata, nec imbribus foecundata, ex qua homo tunc plurimum plasmatus est, ex qua nunc Christus secundum carnem ex virgine natus est. Et lignum, inquit, adtulit fructum suum (Joel. II, 22). Non illud lignum in paradiso, quod mortem dedit protoplastis, sed lignum passionis Christi, unde vita pendens a vobis credita non est (Deut. XXVIII, 66). Hoc enim lignum tunc in sacramento erat, quo Moyses aquam amaram 0635B indulcavit; unde populus, qui siti peribat in eremo, bibendo revixit (Exod. XV, 23-26): sicuti nos qui de saeculi calamitatibus extracti, in quo commorabamur, siti pereuntes, id est verbi divini potu privati , ligno passionis Christi aquam edulcatam baptismatis potantes, sive quae est in eum, reviximus; a qua fide Israel excidit, secundum Hieremiam dicentem: Mittite, et interrogate nimis si facta sunt talia: Si mutabunt gentes deos suos, et isti non sunt dii. Populus autem meus mutavit gloriam suam, ex quo nihil proderit eis. Expavit coelum super isto (Jer. II, 10, 11). Et quomodo et quando expavit? Indubitate quando passus est Christus: Et horruit, inquit, plurimum nimis, et sol media die tenebricavit (Amos. VIII, 9). Et quando horruit nimis, nisi in 0635C passione Christi, cum terra quoque contremuit, et velum templi scissum est, monumenta dirupta sunt (Matth. XXVII, 51)? Quoniam duo haec mala fecit populus meus: me, inquit, dereliquerunt fontem aquae vitae, et foderunt sibi lacus contritos, qui non poterunt aquam continere (Jer. II, 13). Indubitate non recipiendo Christum, fontem aquae vitae: lacus contritos coeperunt habere, id est synagogas in dispersiones gentium, in quibus jam Spiritus sanctus non immoratur, ut in praeteritum in templo commorabatur ante adventum Christi, qui est verum Dei templum. Nam et istam sitim divini Spiritus eos passuros dixerat propheta Esaias, dicens: Ecce qui serviunt mihi, manducabunt; vos autem esurietis: servientes mihi potabuntur, vos autem sitietis, et a contribulatione 0635D spiritus ululabitis. Remittetis enim nomen vestrum, in societatem electis meis; vos autem interficiet Dominus. 0636A Eis autem qui serviunt mihi, nomen nominabitur novum, quod benedicetur in terris (Is. LXV, 13-15). Adhuc hujus ligni sacramentum in Regnorum legimus celebratum. Nam cum filii prophetarum super flumen Jordanem lignum securibus caederent, exiliit ferrum, et mersum est in flumine, atque ita Heliseo propheta superveniente, petunt ab eo filii prophetarum uti ferrum flumini quod mersum fuerat erueret. Atque ita Heliseus accepto ligno, et misso in eum locum ubi submersum fuerat ferrum, statim supernatavit, et lignum mersum est, quod receperunt filii prophetarum (III Reg. VI, 4-7). Ex quo intellexerunt quod Heliae spiritus in eum sit repraesentatus. Quid manifestius hujus ligni sacramento? quod duritia hujus saeculi mersa in profundo erroris, et a ligno 0636B Christi, id est passionis ejus, in baptismo liberatur, ut quod perierat olim per lignum in Adam, id restitueretur per lignum Christi. Nobis igitur qui successimus in loco prophetarum, ea sustinentibus hodie in saeculo, quae semper passi sunt prophetae propter divinam religionem. Alios enim lapidaverunt, alios fugaverunt, plures vero ad mortis necem tradiderunt, quod negare non possunt. Hoc lignum sibi et Isaac filius Abrahae ad sacrificium ipse portabat, cum sibi eum Deus hostiam fieri praecepisset (Gen. XXII, 6). Sed quoniam haec fuerant sacramenta, quae temporibus Christi perficienda servabantur; et Isaac cum ligno reservatus est, ariete oblato in vepre cornibus haerente et Christus suis temporibus lignum humeris suis portavit, inhaerens 0636C cornibus crucis, corona spinea in capite ejus circumdata. Hunc enim oportebat pro omnibus gentibus fieri sacrificium, qui tamquam ovis ad victimam ductus est, et velut agnus coram tondente se sine voce, sic non aperuit os suum (Is. LIII, 7). Hic enim Pilato interrogante nihil locutus est (Joh. XIX, 9): in humilitate enim judicium ejus sublatum est. Nativitatem autem ejus quis enarrabit (Is. LIII, 8)? quia nullus omnino hominum nativitatis Christi fuit conscius in conceptu, cum virgo Maria verbo Dei praegnans inveniretur, Et quia tolleretur a terra vita ejus (Ibid.); cum utique post resurrectionem ejus a mortuis, quae die tertia effecta est, coeli eum receperunt, secundum prophetiam Osee emissam hujusmodi: Ante lucem surgent ad me dicentes: Eamus et revertamur 0636D ad Dominum Deum, quoniam ipse eripiet et liberabit nos, post biduum die tertia (Ose. VI, 1-3) 0637A quae est resurrectio ejus gloriosa, de terra in coelos cum recepit, unde et venerat ipse spiritus ad virginem; cujus neque nativitatem, neque passionem Judaei agnoverunt. Igitur, quoniam adhuc contendunt Judaei necdum venisse Christum eorum quem tot modis adprobavimus venisse, recognoscant Judaei exitum suum, quem post adventum Christi relaturi praecinebantur ob impietatem, qua eum et despexerunt et interfecerunt. Primo enim ex qua die, secundum illud dictum Esaiae, projecit homo abominamenta sua aurea et argentea quae fecerunt adorandis vanis et noctuis (Is. II, 20): id est, ex quo gentes, nos, dilucidata per Christum veritate , projecimus idola (videant Judaei) , et quod sequitur, expunctum est. Tulit enim Dominus sabaoth a Judaeis et ab Hierusalem, 0637B inter caetera, et sapientem architectum (Is. III, 1, 3), qui aedificat Ecclesiam Dei templum, et civitatem sanctam, et domum Domini. Nam exinde destitit apud illos Dei gratia. Et mandatum est nubibus ne pluerent imbrem super vineam Sorech (Is. V, 6), id est coelestibus beneficiis, ne provenirent domui Israel. Fecerat enim spinas (Ibid. 4), ex quibus Christum coronaverat: et non justitiam, sed clamorem (Ibid. 8), quo in crucem eum extorserat: et ita subtractis charismatis prioribus, lex et prophetae usque ad Joannem (Luc. XVI, 16) fuerunt; et piscina Bethsaida (Joan. V, 2) usque ad adventum Christi, curando invaletudines ab Israel, desiit a beneficiis deinde , cum ex perseverantia furoris sui nomen Domini per ipsos blasphemaretur; sicut scriptum est: 0637C Propter vos nomen Dei blasphematur in gentibus (Is. LII, 5; Ezech. XXVI, 2). Ab illis enim incipit infamia, et tempus medium a Tiberio usque ad Vespasianum. Quae cum ita commisissent, nec intellexissent 0638A Christum in tempore suae visitationis inveniendum, facta est terra eorum deserta, et civitates eorum igni exustae: regionem ipsorum in conspectu eorum extranei devorantes: derelicta est filia Sion tamquam specula in vinea, vel ut in cucumerario casula (Is. I, 7, 8); ex quo scilicet Israel Dominum non cognovit, et populus eum non intellexit, sed dereliquit magis, et ad indignationem provocavit sanctum Israel (Ibid. 3, 4). Sic et machaerae conditionalis comminatio, Si nolueritis, nec obaudieritis, gladius vos comedet (Ibid. 20), probavit Christum fuisse quem non audiendo perierunt; qui et in Psalmo dispersionem ejus postulat a Patre, dicens: Disperge illos in virtute tua (Psal. LVIII, 12); qui et rursum per Esaiam exustionem eorum orat: Propter me, inquit, haec facta sunt 0638B vobis, in anxietate dormietis (Is. L, 11). Haec igitur cum pati praedicentur Judaei propter Christum, et passos eos esse inveniamus, et in dispersionem demorari cernamus, manifestum est propter Christum Judaeis ista accidisse, conspirante sensu Scripturarum cum exitu rerum et ordinis temporum. Aut si nondum venit Christus, propter quem haec passuri praedicabantur, cum venerit ergo patientur. Et ubi tunc filia Sion relinquenda, quae nulla hodie est? ubi civitates exurendae, quae jam in tumulis exustae suat? ubi dispersio gentis, quae jam extorris? Redde statum Judeae quem Christus inveniat, et alium contende venire.