Against the Jews

The reason for Tertullian’s writing of the work “Against the Jews” (14 chapters, 197-200) was a dispute between a Christian and a Jewish proselyte. It is directed against the claims of the chosen people and proves that the grace of God, which Israel lost through its own fault, passed on to the Gentiles. The Mosaic law had only a temporary meaning, and now the Old Testament, the ancient law of retribution and ancient circumcision gave way to the new law of love. The essay reveals the doctrine of the Face of Jesus Christ based on Old Testament prophecies: 1) that all nations will turn to God: Christianity has now spread not only in the Roman Empire, but also among the barbarians; 2) from Daniel’s prophecy that at the coming of Christ the holy city will be destroyed and prophecies and sacrifices will cease. Tertullian proves that all the prophecies and types were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and that another Messiah cannot come. *The title of the work in Latin is Adversus Iudaeos. 1) Recently there was a dispute between a Christian and a Jewish proselyte. The dispute continued on both sides until the evening, but did not end with anything definite. Moreover, the noise of some listeners intensified to such an extent that the truth was covered, as it were, with a cloud. I decided to enter with great care into the analysis of what could not be explained during the dispute, and to conclude with a special article the development of the controversial subjects. Let the case that gave rise to the defense of the divine grace belonging to them in the name of the peoples, at least have the benefit that a man who came from these peoples, not a Jew and not from the tribe of Israel by blood, will stand up for the law of God. To admit the nations to the law of God, it would be enough for Israel to have no right to proudly repeat that the nations are nothing more than a drop of water in a copper vessel or like light straw carried away by the wind. Fortunately, we have an unchangeable promise and guarantee in this regard from God Himself, such as when He swore to the Patriarch Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through his seed (Gen. 12:18), and also to Rebekah, that two tongues and two people will come from your womb (Ibid. 25:23), that is, on the one hand, Judah or Israel, and on the other. the other – other peoples or us. Both languages ​​are called equally nations, so that one does not arrogate to itself the advantage of grace exclusively from the other. God intended that two tongues and "two people" should come from the womb of one wife, and He did not attach grace to the difference of names, but to the order of birth, so that the greater (the one born first) would work for the lesser, in other words, the one who was born after. In this sense, God said to Rebekah: there are two tongues in your womb, and two people will be separated from your womb; and men will outdo men, and the greater will work for the lesser. And, as we know, the Jewish people were the first to appear in the order of times, and became elders by the grace of their calling to the law; our people turned out to be the youngest, judging by the fact that they received knowledge of divine mercy at the end of time: then, following the sacred prediction, there should be no doubt that the first people older than us, that is, the Jews, would not work for the younger one, and that the younger one, that is, the Christian people, would not triumph over the older one. Consulting the Holy Scriptures, I find that the first of these peoples in time left God to serve idols and, having become a traitor to the deity, bowed his knees to vain ghosts. The proof of this is that the people rebelled against Aaron and said to him: Make us the gods who will go before us (Ex. 32:1, 8). How quickly the gold from the earrings of women and from the rings of men melted in the fire, and the head of the crazy animal was cast: then Israel, having rejected their God, greeted the idol with these words: these are your gods, to Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. The same thing happened when kings ruled the people. We see how the Israelites under Jeroboam adored golden heifers, revered sacred groves and worshiped Baal. This proves that, consistent with Scripture, they were always guilty of idolatry. On the contrary, our people, that is, the second or youngest, leaving the idols that they had previously served, turned to the very God whom Israel rejected, as we explained. Through this, the younger of the two nations triumphed over the older, gaining the benefit of divine protection, which Israel had lost. 2) Let's get down to business and state in clear and precise terms the main subject of our discussion. The point is why one must believe that God, who created all creatures, rules the whole world, created man with his own hands, settled all nations indiscriminately on earth, gave His law through Moses not only for one people, but for all nations in general. Firstly, if He had not published it for everyone, He would not have allowed strangers from different nations to receive it. But it was always fitting for the goodness and justice of the Creator of the world to establish the same laws for all nations, which He prescribed to be carried out at the times appointed by Him by whom, how and when it was pleasing to Him. Indeed, at the beginning of the world, He gave a law to Adam and Eve, forbidding them to touch the fruit of the tree in the middle of paradise, and warning them that they would die when they violated this command. This law would have been sufficient if they had preserved it. In it we find the hidden root of all the precepts of the law subsequently issued by Moses, such as: love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul; - love your neighbor as you love yourself; - do not kill; - do not commit adultery; - do not steal; - do not listen to your friend’s false testimony; – do not covet someone else’s things; - Honor your father and your mother. The original law, given to Adam and Eve in paradise, is, as it were, the source of all God's decrees. In a word, if they had loved the Lord their God, they would not have broken His commandments. If they truly loved their neighbor, that is, as themselves, they would not have believed the suggestions of the serpent, and would not have been murderers against themselves, having lost their immortality through violating the commandments of God. Likewise, they would have refrained from stealing if they had not secretly partaken of the fruit and hidden themselves from the sight of the Lord. Would they not have suffered the destruction that befell the devil if they had not trusted in his word that they would be like God? Through this they would not have upset the goodness of that God who created them from the dust of the earth, taking them, as it were, from their mother’s womb. If they had not desired someone else's good, they would not have touched the forbidden fruit. Thus, in this general and original law, which God limited to the observance of the commandment about the fruit of the tree, we see collectively all the regulations that were to be developed later in their time in the later law. The same legislator who decreed the commandment was destined to change it, because He who began to instruct the righteous was destined to teach them everything. Why be surprised that the founder of the law adds and improves it? Before the law of Moses, inscribed on stone tablets, there was already a law, not written, but understood and observed by our fathers, according to the inspiration of natural knowledge. How could Noah have been found to be righteous if the truth of the natural law had not accompanied him? Why was Abraham considered a friend of God, if not because he kept the righteousness and righteousness of the same natural law? Why is Melchizedek called the priest of the most high God, if before the publication of the Levitical Law there were no Levites who offered sacrifices to God? The law was given to Moses after the Patriarchs mentioned here, after a long time, after the exodus of the people from Egypt. Meanwhile, four hundred and thirty years have passed since the law was given to Abraham. From this we see that the law took its beginning not on Mount Horeb, not on Sinai and not in the desert, but ascending to paradise itself, it was applied first to the Patriarchs, and then to the Jews, in accordance with the circumstances of the time. Therefore, the point is not for us to dwell on the Law of Moses and consider it the main law, but to cleave to the law that followed that, which God decreed for the nations also at a certain time, and the successes of which the Prophets announced in advance. Therefore, we must believe that through Moses the law was given for a certain time, so that it would be observed temporarily. God should not be deprived of the power to apply the law to the salvation of people, depending on the needs of the time. If anyone thinks that even now it is necessary to keep the Sabbath as a means of salvation, and to observe circumcision on the eighth day because of the threat of death for omission, I would say to him without hesitation: prove to me that before the righteous celebrated the Sabbath and circumcised their flesh, and that through these rites they became saints of God. If it is true that circumcision cleanses a person, then why did God create Adam uncircumcised, and did not hasten to circumcise him even after his fall, when circumcision cleanses? It is known that having placed him in paradise, although uncircumcised, He gave him control of paradise. The same God, who settled the first man in paradise, and did not command him either to circumcise or to celebrate the Sabbath, praised his son Abel, who, being uncircumcised and not keeping the Sabbath, made sacrifices favorable to Him: He was worthy of accepting what Abel presented to Him in the simplicity of his heart, while he rejected the sacrifice of Cain, his brother, because he did not share the right, that is, he did not do the right. Noah was not circumcised and did not keep the Sabbath; nevertheless, God delivered him from the flood. He snatched from this world the righteous Enoch, who knew neither circumcision nor the Sabbath, and who had not yet tasted death, so that this candidate of eternity would serve as a testimony to us that we can please the God of Moses without the burden of the Mosaic Law. Melchizedek, priest of the Most High God, was invested with the priestly title without observing circumcision and the Sabbath. Lot, Abraham's nephew, also proves this truth to us: he was spared from the fire of Sodom not for keeping the law, but for his righteousness. 3) You say that Abraham was circumcised. So! But he pleased God before he was circumcised, and did not celebrate the Sabbath at all. He, of course, accepted circumcision, but circumcision as a sign of the times, and not as a benefit of salvation. Meanwhile, the Patriarchs, his contemporaries, were not circumcised: the proof is Melchizedek, who, despite the fact that he was not circumcised, brought out bread and wine and blessed the circumcised Abraham. But the son of Moses, you object, would have been put to death if his mother Zipporah had not circumcised him with a sharp stone. It turns out that whoever neglected circumcision was liable to death. To this I answer: if circumcision had served as an indispensable guarantee of salvation, then Moses would not have missed circumcising his son on the eighth day, and would not have waited for Zipporah to circumcise him on the way at the command of the Angel. However, the forced circumcision of one child could not turn into a law for an entire people, and God, who appointed it as a sign, and not as salvation, rightly commanded that the son of Moses, the future leader of his people, receive the sign of circumcision at the end, so that when God, through Moses, gives the people the commandment about circumcision, the people would not dare to despise it, seeing that the son of the leader had already fulfilled it. Circumcision was, as it were, a distinctive sign by which Israel could be recognized in the last time, when he would be prohibited from entering the holy city because of his iniquities, in accordance with the predictions of the Prophets, such as: your land is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your country is devoured by strangers before you, and is desolately corrupted by strangers. The daughter of Zion will remain like a tabernacle among vineyards, and like a vegetable storehouse in a hillside city, like a city at war. That is why the Prophet did not fail to say in advance: sons were born and raised up, but they rejected Me. Also in another place: Whenever you stretch out [your] hands to Me, I will turn My eyes away from you; and even if you increase your prayer, I will not hear you; Your hands are full of blood. He also said: Alas! a sinful tongue, a people full of sins, an evil seed, sons of iniquity, who have forsaken the Lord and angered the Holy One of Israel (Isa. 1:2, 4, 7, 8, 15). So, the providence of God was pleased to grant circumcision to Israel as a sign by which he could be recognized at a time when he was prohibited from entering Jerusalem because of his iniquities mentioned before. These events were announced to us so that they could be fulfilled; we now actually see their fulfillment. Thus, just as fleshly circumcision was given temporarily as a sign to a rebellious people, so circumcision of the heart was given as a guarantee of salvation to a submissive people, according to the words of Jeremiah the Prophet: Renew your fields, and do not sow on thorns. Cut off your hardness of heart. Also in another place: these days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that their father commanded in the day that I took their hand, that I would bring it out of the land of Egypt (Jer. 4:3, 31:31). From this we see that the original circumcision had to cease and give way to a new law, different from the law that was given to the fathers of the Jews. The Prophet announced this in advance: And in the last days the mountain of the Lord will be revealed, and the house of God will be on the top of the mountains, and will be exalted above the hills; and all the nations will come to her, and many nations will go, and say: Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob (Isa. 2:2). Can you hear? Not to the House of Esau, the eldest son, but to the house of Jacob, who came after him, that is, to the house of our people, whose mountain Daniel presents to us, created without human hands and filling the whole earth. Finally, Isaiah lets us know with the following words that a new law will come from the house of the God of Jacob. From Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and the Lord will judge in the midst of the tongue, that is, he will judge those of us who came from the nations; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and the tongue shall not take up the tongue of the sword, neither shall they be accustomed to fight (Isa. 2:3-4). Is it possible to understand here another people besides us, observing these instructions under the guidance of the new law, and seeing with our own eyes the fall of the old law in reality? The old law was upheld by the sword, tearing out an eye for an eye, repaying insult for insult. The new law, on the contrary, inspires mercy, makes the zealots of war guardians of the law, turns enmity into a love of peace, intended to cultivate and fertilize the earth. What follows from this? Having mentioned the prophecies that the old law and carnal circumcision would cease, we conclude from this that the observance of the new law and spiritual circumcision was revealed to us in the calling and submission of the world. People, it is said, I don’t know them, Mi worked; You have listened to Me in the ear (Psalm 17:45). This is what the Prophets declared. What people, if not us, did not know God in the past tense? Who listened to Him in the hearing of the ear, if not we, who left idols to worship Him? Israel, whom God knew and glorified in Egypt, who under His right hand passed through the Red Sea, who ate manna in the desert, was honored to eat the bread of heaven, for forty years bore, so to speak, the image of eternity. Israel, blessed so much by God, forgot the Lord their God and decided to say to Aaron: Arise and make us gods who will go before us; For this man Moses, who brought us out from the land of Egypt, we knew not what would happen to him (Ex. 32:1). That is why we, who were not before the people of God, have now become His people, having accepted the new law, which was only now spoken of, having accepted the new circumcision, which was predicted. 4) Since we have proven that carnal circumcision and the old law were at one time abolished and ceased: then it remains to prove that the observance of the Sabbath was only a temporary institution. The Jews tell us that God sanctified the seventh day from the very beginning, as in that rest from all His works. Therefore, they add, Moses said to the people: remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy; May you not do any work in it, except for what relates to the salvation of the soul. From this we can conclude that we should celebrate the Sabbath, abstaining from all work, not only on the seventh day, but at all times. The point is what kind of Sabbath God commanded us to keep. Holy Scripture mentions both the eternal Sabbath and the temporary Sabbath. The prophet Isaiah says: My soul hates Sabbaths and your holidays (Is. 1:14). Elsewhere it is said: My Sabbaths are desecrated (Ezek. 23:38). From this it is clear that the temporary Sabbath belongs to man, but the eternal Sabbath goes back to God. The Lord Himself, through the mouth of Isaiah, announced about this last Sabbath: And there will be a month from a month and a Sabbath from a Sabbath, that all flesh will come to worship before Me in Jerusalem, says the Lord (Isa. 66:23). This miracle happened at the coming of Jesus Christ, when all flesh, that is, every nation, appeared to worship God the Father in Jerusalem through Jesus Christ His Son, as it was predicted by the Prophet: all strangers will come to you by Me. Thus, before the temporary Sabbath, the eternal Sabbath was announced and prescribed, just as spiritual circumcision was predicted before the physical circumcision. Let someone, as already mentioned before, show us that either Adam kept the Sabbath, or Abel, having made a holy sacrifice to God, pleased Him with his reverence for the Sabbath, or Enoch, miraculously raptured from earth to heaven, celebrated the Sabbath, or Noah, honored with building the ark and saving the human race from the flood, sanctified the Sabbath, or Abraham, sacrificing his son Isaac to God. , kept the Sabbath day, or Melchizedek, as a priest, kept the law of the Sabbath. But, the Jews will say, the Sabbath must be observed since Moses decreed it. Therefore, it is clear that the decree that was supposed to end was neither eternal nor spiritual, but only temporary. However, the celebration of this festival does not consist in observing the Sabbath, that is, the seventh day. The proof is that Joshua, during the siege of Jericho, announced to the people that God had commanded him to order the priests to carry the ark of the covenant around the city for seven days; to which he added that before the seventh day of the detour had passed, the city walls themselves would fall at their foundations. His order was carried out. At the end of the seventh day the walls fell just as he had predicted. Through this, it is clearly proven to us that among these seven days was the Sabbath day; no matter what day the circumambulation began, there had to be a Sabbath day here, and on this day not only the priests were engaged in work, but the whole city became the prey of Israel, who slaughtered its inhabitants. That they (on Saturday) were engaged in work, there is no doubt; for they entered into warfare at the command of God. During the time of the Maccabees, the Jews repeatedly fought bravely on the Sabbath day, triumphed over external enemies, and with these victories won on the Sabbath day, they brought the law of their fathers to its original meaning. I do not think that they abolished another law here than the one by which they were commanded to remember the Sabbath day: convincing proof that such decrees are valid only for a certain time and in case of future need, but that God originally gave them this law not so that it would be fulfilled forever. 5) We derive from this further proof that the vows of mercy and spiritual sacrifices were predicted. The earthly sacrifices of the eldest son, that is, Israel, from the very beginning of the world are typified by the sacrifices of Cain, while in the sacrifices of Abel, the youngest son, that is, our people, we see sacrifices of a completely different kind. The elder (Cain) offer a sacrifice to God from the fruits of the earth. And Abel, the youngest, bring also to that one some of your firstborn sheep and some of their fat. And God looked upon Abel and his gifts. Cain and his sacrifices are not heeded. And Cain was greatly saddened, and his face disappeared. And the Lord God said to Cain: For what reason were you sorrowful, and for what reason did you fall from grace? Food, even though you brought the right, you didn’t share the right? Have you sinned? Shut up. It (sin) turns to you, and you have it. And Cain said to Abel his brother: Let us go to the field. And it came to pass, while they were on the ground, that Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. And the Lord God spoke to Cain: Where is Abel, your brother? And he said: we don’t know; food am I the guardian of my brother? And the Lord said: What did you do this? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the earth. And now you are cursed on the earth, even though you opened your mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hand. Whenever you work on the earth and do not exert your strength to give it to you, you will be groaning and shaking on the earth. And Cain said to the Lord God: my greatest guilt is that I will be left behind. If you drive me out this day from the face of the earth, I will hide from your presence, and I will be groaning and shaking on the earth, and everyone who finds me will kill me (Gen. 4:4-14). From all this we notice that the two sacrifices of the two peoples had their prototype from the very beginning. Finally, when Moses prescribed priestly decrees in the book of Leviticus, we find there that the people of Israel were commanded to offer sacrifices in no other place than in the promised land, which the Lord God was to give to the people of Israel and their brothers, so that when Israel was brought there, they would offer sacrifices and burnt offerings there both for their sins and for their souls, but I repeat: nowhere except in the holy land. But why does the Holy Spirit then declare through the mouth of the Prophets that sacrifices will one day be offered over the whole face of the earth and in every place, somehow Malachi, one of the twelve Angel-Prophets, predicted: I will not accept sacrifices at your hands; From the east of the sun to the west, my name was glorified among the nations, and in every place incense was offered to my name and the sacrifice was pure (Mal. 1:11). David in his psalms also proclaims: bring the tongue of the Fatherland to the Lord (the sermon of the Apostles really should have spread throughout the whole earth), bring glory and honor to the Lord, bring glory to His name to the Lord; take the sacrifices and enter into His courts. When it is necessary to appease God with spiritual sacrifices, and not earthly ones, the Prophet tells us: the sacrifice to God is a broken spirit. Also in another place: devour the sacrifice of praise to God, and render your prayers to the Most High (Ps. 95:7, 50:19, 49:14). Here it is decisively proclaimed that the spiritual sacrifice of praise is acceptable to God, the sacrifice of a broken spirit to Him; on the one hand, the rejection of carnal sacrifices is proclaimed, about which Isaiah responds this way: what are the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord? And on the other hand, vows of spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God, as the same Prophet says: if you offer Mi sevendals in vain. He adds: I am filled with burnt offerings of rams and the fat of lambs, and I do not want the blood of young men and goats. Whenever you stretch out your (your) hands to Me, I will turn My eyes away from you, and I will not hear you. Who took this delight out of your hands (Isa. 1:1-15). On the contrary, listen to what God says about spiritual sacrifices: in every place incense is offered to My name, and the sacrifice is pure (Mal. 1:11). 6) Now that we are convinced that a temporary Sabbath and an everlasting Sabbath, carnal circumcision and spiritual circumcision, a temporal law and an eternal law, carnal sacrifices and spiritual sacrifices, were foretold: then it appears that the time when the carnal statutes were given to the Jewish people, followed the time when the ancient law and ancient rites were to cease, in order to give place to the vows of the new law, the withering away of spiritual sacrifices and the fulfillment of the new covenant, because we, who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, were enlightened by the light from above. Consequently, as we have already stated above that the Prophets predicted a new law, different from the law given to the forefathers when the Lord brought them out of Egypt: then we need to present and prove, on the one hand, that the ancient law has ceased, and on the other, that the promised new law is now in effect. First of all, it is necessary to examine whether the coming of a new lawgiver, the heir of the new covenant, the high priest of new sacrifices, the purifier of our circumcision, the keeper of the eternal Sabbath, should still be awaited in order to end the ancient law, in order to introduce a new covenant, in order to offer new sacrifices, in order to abolish the ancient rites and ancient circumcision; for He himself announced that He would establish a special Sabbath and a new endless kingdom. In a word, we must consider whether the Creator of the new law, the guardian of the spiritual Sabbath, the high priest of eternal sacrifices, the immortal Lord of the eternal kingdom has already come or not. If He has not come, then we must wait for Him, with the caveat, however, that at His coming the decrees of the ancient law must give way to the revelations of the new law. The first rule here is that the ancient law and the appearance of the Prophets could not have ceased if the One whose coming this law and these Prophets had not already descended to earth. 7) So, the subject of our discussion is the following: Has Christ, whose coming was announced, already come to earth, or should we still await His coming? To prove this, we need to examine the times indicated by the Prophets for the coming of Jesus Christ, so that, having learned that He appeared precisely at those times indicated by the Prophets, we would be firmly convinced that He is the very Christ whom they predicted, and in whom the nations should believe. Then, when we are convinced that He has already come, then we will have no choice but to undoubtedly believe that He gave a new law, and that the new covenant was fulfilled for us in Him and through Him. We know that the Jews themselves do not deny that Jesus Christ must descend to us, and they place all their hope in His coming. We do not need to expand much on this matter. All the Prophets, and especially Isaiah, testify to this, saying: The Lord God says to my anointed one, I will hold him by the right hand, I will subdue the tongues before him, and I will destroy the fortress of kings, I will open the gates before him, and the cities will not be shut (Is. 45:1). We saw this miracle happen. Who else did God the Father hold by the hand, if not Jesus Christ, His Son, whom all nations heard, that is, in whom they all believed? The Psalmist describes the Apostles, who were obliged to preach His name, in these words: their message went out into all the earth, and their words went out to the ends of the world (Ps. 18:5). The question is: in whom else did the nations believe if not in Jesus Christ, who had already come? In whom else could the Parthians, the Medes, the Slamites, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Armenia, Phrygia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Pamphylia, Egypt, that part of Libya near Cyrene, and, above all, many strangers from Rome, believe? In whom did the Jews, who then lived in Jerusalem, and other peoples from the borders of Getulia, Mauritania, Spain, Gaul, the inhabitants of Britain, inaccessible to the Romans, but who submitted to Christ, the Sarmatians, Dacians, Germans, Scythians, many other countries and islands unknown to us, which cannot be counted, believe? In all places the name of Jesus Christ, who has already come and reigns, is glorified; God is glorified, before whom the city gates are open and the cities are not shut, before whom the iron gates are broken and the copper doors fall. Although such sayings must be understood in a spiritual sense, meaning that our hearts, variously overwhelmed by the devil, were opened by faith in Jesus Christ, it is nevertheless true that they were actually fulfilled literally, because the people of Christ have already spread everywhere. And who could reign everywhere if not Jesus Christ, the Son of God, about whom it was announced to us that He will reign forever over all nations? Solomon reigned, but only within the borders of Judea and his land, from Bathsheba to Dan. Darius reigned, but only over the Babylonians and Parthians: he did not conquer all nations. Pharaoh and other rulers of the same name reigned in Egypt, but only in Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar, assisted by his military leaders, extended his weapons to India and Ethiopia; but then his power was cut short. Alexander the Great, the short-term ruler of Asia and the countries he defeated, did not transfer his dominion to his heirs. The Germans have not yet allowed anyone to invade their borders. Britain is protected by the ocean that surrounds it. The ardor of the Moors and the ferocity of the Gaetuli are barely restrained by the Romans. What can we say about the Romans themselves? They do not have enough legions to guard their own borders, and they have never been able to extend their power beyond these peoples. But this is not what happens in relation to Jesus Christ. His name and power penetrate to all ends of the universe. People everywhere believe in Him. All the nations we mentioned revere him. Everywhere He reigns, everywhere He is worshiped, everywhere the same tribute is brought to Him. There is no barbarian who would not be received from Him with joy. There is no rank or status that could enjoy a special advantage here. He treats everyone the same, he rules over everyone equally. He is one King, one Judge, one Lord and God in the universe. Will you really dare to believe what we affirm, while all this is happening before our eyes? 8) It is necessary to examine, as stated above, the times predicted and predetermined for the birth of Jesus Christ, for His suffering and for the desolation, that is, for the destruction of Jerusalem. Daniel says: the city and the holy things will be scattered with the elder who comes, and the abomination that makes desolate will be in the sanctuary (Dan. 9:26–27). Let us find out at what time our Lord Jesus Christ should have appeared. We will find this in the same Daniel. Having calculated the times indicated by him, we will prove that Jesus Christ not only came at the appointed time, but His coming is confirmed by the signs that accompanied Him and the miracles He performed. We base our arguments on the events that were to accompany His coming, as the Prophet declares, so that we can believe together both the prediction itself and the fulfillment of the prediction. This is precisely the quality of Daniel's prophecy about Jesus Christ. He precisely defines the time at which Christ will deliver all nations, adding that after the passion of the Lord the deicide city will be destroyed. Let's listen to how he describes it. In the first year of Darius, the son of Assuirav, from the tribe of Midsk, who was king in the kingdom of Chaldeistem, in the first summer of his kingdom, the az Daniel understood the number of years in the books. - And while I was still speaking in prayer, and behold the man Gabriel, whom I saw in my vision at the beginning, soaring: and touching me like at the hour of the evening sacrifice, and enlightened me, and the verb to to me, and said: Daniel, now I have expired to arrange your mind. At the beginning of your prayer, a word came out, and I came to tell you that you are a man of desires, think about words, and understand in appearance. Seventy weeks have been shortened for your people and for your holy city, so that transgression will become obsolete, and sin will end, and sins will be sealed, and iniquities will be blotted out, and iniquities will be cleansed, and eternal righteousness will be brought in, and the vision and the Prophet will be sealed, and the Holy of Holies will be anointed. And you have learned and understood that from the exodus you will answer the word and build up Jerusalem, even to Christ the elders of seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; and the haystack and waste will return and be gathered together, and the years will be exhausted; and after sixty-two weeks the anointing (Messiah) will be consumed, and judgment will not be in Him: the city and holy things will crumble with the elder of the coming, and they will be consumed like in the flood and until the end of the army, reduced by the order of (from) destruction. And one week will confirm the covenant with many: in the half of the week the sacrifice and the drink offering will be taken away, and the abomination of desolation will be in the sanctuaries, and even until the end of time the end will be given to desolation (Dan. 9; 1, 2, 21-27). It is impossible not to notice with what precision the Prophet here designates the time of birth, suffering and death of Jesus Christ. The angel clearly says that from the exodus of the word to Christ sixty-two weeks will pass and the Holy of Holies will be anointed, then the anointing will be consumed; After the seven weeks have passed, hail will fall in one week and in half a week, the sacrifice will be taken away, and the end will be desolate. But how can one prove that Jesus Christ will come after sixty-two weeks and a half? We will begin our calculation from the first year of the reign of Darius, when the vision took place, and Daniel was told: think about words. The incidents that followed will be our guides. Let's take a look at the succession of Sovereigns: Ohuv, aka Kir, 23 years old Alexander the Great 12 years old. On transferring the capital to Alexandria: Ptolemy - Philadelphus 39 years old. August has been with Cleopatra for 13 years. Thus, sixty-two weeks and a half were fulfilled, equal to 438.5 years before the coming of Jesus Christ, when eternal righteousness was established, when the Holy of Holies, that is, Christ, was anointed, when the vision and the Prophet were sealed, and when the sins remitted to all who believe in the name of Christ were blotted out. But what do the words mean: the vision and the Prophet will be sealed? Since all the Prophets predicted that Christ should come and suffer: then, during the fulfillment of the prophecy about His coming, Daniel said that the vision and the Prophet would be sealed, because Jesus Christ, fulfilling everything that was predicted about His person by the ancient Prophets, is, as it were, the seal and fulfillment of all the Prophets. Indeed, since He came and suffered, there is no longer a vision or a Prophet who would announce that He would come. If this is not true: then let the Jews show us at least one place in their writings where, since the coming of Christ, any Prophets were mentioned in this regard or about visible angelic apparitions and miracles that the ancient Prophets witnessed. The evangelist had the right to say: all the prophets and the law before John (the Baptist) prophesied (Matthew 11:13). As soon as Christ was baptized, that is, as soon as He sanctified the waters with His baptism, the fullness of the spiritual grace of the ancient law was entirely concentrated in Jesus Christ, and He sealed the vision and all the prophecies, fulfilling them with His coming. Therefore, the saying of Daniel is very reliable, that at His coming the vision and the Prophet will be sealed. Having shown that Jesus Christ came into the world after sixty-two and a half weeks, let us now see how the remaining seven and a half weeks were fulfilled. Augustus lived another fifteen years after the birth of Christ. He was succeeded by Tiberius, who reigned for twenty-two years, seven months, twenty days. In the fifteenth year of this reign, Jesus Christ suffered, being about thirty years old 2. After Tiberius there were Emperors: Kai Caesar, also known as Caligula, three years seven months thirteen days; Nero nine years nine months thirteen days; Galba seven months six days; Otho three months five days; Vitellius eight months ten days; Vespasian triumphs over the Jews in the first year of his reign. A total of fifty-two years and six months have passed. This is how the seventy weeks predicted by Daniel until their final destruction were fulfilled for the Jews. At the end of these years and their subsequent death, their sacrifices and offerings were stopped in the country, which from then on could never be sent there; for this anointing was consumed from the time of the suffering of Jesus Christ. It was foretold that the anointing would be consumed, just as in Psalm 21 it was said: plowing Mirutsi and nozi. This bloody sacrifice took place at the end of the seventy weeks, during the reign of Tiberius, during the consulate of Rubellius and Fufius Geminii, in the month of March, when the Passover festival began, and when Moses was commanded to eat the lamb in the evening. The entire synagogue of the children of Israel participated in this sacrifice, crying out to Pilate, who wanted to free Jesus Christ: His blood be on us and on our children; and also: if you let this go, bring it to Caesar’s friend (Matthew 27:25 and John 19:12), so that everything that was written about Him will certainly be fulfilled. 9) Let us proceed to the exact proof that the birth of Jesus Christ was foretold by the Prophets. Isaiah says this: Do you hear the house of David: is it not enough for you to give food to the labor of man? And how do you give the Lord’s work? For this reason, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive in her womb and give birth to a Son, and they will call his name Immanuel (God is with us); butter and honey... Before you know how to call a child or a mother, he will receive the power of Damascus and the gain of Samaria before the king of Assyria (Isa. 7:13–15, 8:4). The Jews here say: “We refer to this very prophecy of Isaiah, and ask: the name given to Christ by the Prophets and all the qualities attributed to Him, do they truly befit the Christ who has already come? Isaiah declares that He will be called Immanuel, and that He will accept (destroy) the power of Damascus and (delight) the gain of Samaria before the king of Assyria. It is known, they add, that the Christ who came, in your opinion, was never called by this name and did not make war.” We will ask them to read this text carefully again in its entirety. To the word Emmanuel the meaning of it is added: God is with us, so that the reader is occupied not so much with its interpretation as with its meaning. Emmanuel is a word properly or specifically Hebrew; but its meaning is with us: God is a generally understood saying. The question is: the name God with us, which fully embraces the word Immanuel, was not justified exactly by Jesus Christ when this sun of righteousness shone in the world? I hope that no one will deny this. All the Jews who believed in Him do not call Emmanuel otherwise, as God is with us. Therefore, Emmanuel, predicted by the Prophet, has already come, because the One whom everyone calls God has come. The Jews are also mistaken about the saying of the Prophet that Jesus Christ will accept the power of Damascus and the gain of Samaria before the king of Assyria. They try to see here a prediction about Christ the conqueror, not paying attention to what was said before, that is, that He will accept this power and these self-interests before even calling the child father or mother. It is impossible here not to respect the age of an infant, whose weakness is not characteristic of acting like an adult, much less a military leader. Is it not with the babbling of a child that a newborn will call his people to arms? Will he use a trumpet instead of a trinket to signal battle? What use will your talk about weapons, horses, or stakes for discovering the enemy serve him? Apparently, lying on the breast of the slave who carries him, or being in the arms of a nurse, he takes possession of these last ones, Damascus and Samaria, instead of breasts. Apparently, your newborns go out to battle as soon as they dry their limbs in the sun, anointed with oil, or while still wrapped in swaddling clothes: they apparently know how to shoot a bow before they are fed with milk from their mother’s breasts. But let's talk in earnest. If, judging by the laws of nature, success in life precedes success in the art of war, if it is necessary to know the name of father and mother before taming the pride of Damascus, then one must inevitably conclude that these expressions are figurative or allegorical. “But the virgin birth, they object, is no less contrary to nature; and yet one must believe the Prophet.” Exactly so, and not without reason. The prophet is preparing me to believe in an incredible thing, saying that it will serve as a sign for me. For this reason, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, a Virgin will conceive in her womb and give birth to a Son. If this were not some new miracle, then the sign would be incongruous with the dignity of God. It is in vain that you try to convince others that St. Scripture is not talking about a virgin here, but simply about a young girl. This is nothing more than an absurd lie that contradicts itself. Could such an ordinary incident as the conception and birth of a young girl serve as a sign of a miracle? But the virgin mother: here is a sign that is worth believing. The same can be understood about the newborn conqueror: it would be in vain for me to look here for a reason for a sign. This birth, for which a sign was needed, is followed by circumstances that are not so important. Discard the butter and honey. There is no sign here, because the food is appropriate for a child. But the acceptance of the power of Damascus and the gain of Samaria before the king of Assyria again contains a mysterious sign. Do not lose sight of the baby’s age, look for the meaning of the prophecy, recognize as true what you do not want to believe. Then both the darkness of the prophecy and the uncertainty in its fulfillment will disappear. Give the eastern magicians the power to offer their gold and incense to the baby God: in this case, Christ, while still in the cradle, without weapons, without any battle, will accept Samaria's gain. It is known that gold and incense constitute the main wealth of the East and often the entire strength of other peoples. As proof of this, the Prophet Zechariah says: Judah will also take up arms in Jerusalem, and will gather the strength of all the people around with gold and silver and vestments into a multitude (Zechariah 14:14). Also, David, foreseeing the honor that would be given to his God, said: the kings of Persia and the islands will bring gifts (to Him), the kings of Arabia and Sheba will bring gifts (Ps. 71:10). The East was almost always ruled by the Magi: Damascus was dependent on Syria, until after the division of Syria into two parts it came under the rule of Syrophenicia. Therefore, Christ, having received gold and incense as a gift from him, assumed spiritual power over him. As for the self-interest of Samaria itself, by these words we must understand the Magi themselves, who knew Jesus Christ by faith in the appearance of a star, which served them as both a witness and a guide, and, having humbly worshiped Him as their Lord and God, prefigured by their faith in Christ the self-interest of Samaria, that is, defeated idolatry. Indeed, instead of idolatry, the Prophet mentioned here allegorically about Samaria, which disgraced itself with superstition and rebellion against God under King Jeroboam. Is this the first time St. Has Scripture here used a change in words to denote such crimes? Solomon calls your leaders the leaders of Sodom, and calls your people the people of Gomora, although these cities were destroyed long ago. In another place, the Lord says to Israel through his Prophet: your father is an Amorite and your mother a Hittite (Ezek. 16:3), not because they came from the blood of these peoples, but because they imitated their wickedness. To whom does He address these reproaches? To those very children about whom it is said: Sons have been born and raised up (Isa. 1:2). Likewise, in the language of Scripture, Egypt often means reproaching the world for idolatry and pronouncing a curse on it. And also, according to our Evangelist, Babylon marks the great city of Rome, exalted in its vastness, population and glory, and reveling in the blood of the martyrs. This is the meaning of the name Samaritans given to the Magi. They were captured and plundered, says Scripture, because they participated in the idolatrous superstitions of Samaria. The words that follow: before the king of Assyria, represent none other than the devil, who dreams of establishing his kingdom when he manages to turn one of the Saints away from the divine Religion. This explanation is confirmed by many other sacred texts, where Jesus Christ is presented as a conqueror with symbolic weapons and under figurative names. To convince the Jews, let us examine the following text. Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One, exclaims David (Ps. 44:4). This is so: but before that we read that it is also said about Christ: more beautiful in kindness than the sons of men, grace was poured out on His lips. Wouldn't it be funny to hear the Prophet praise the beauty of the face and the charm of the lips of a conqueror, to whom he hands a sword to go into battle? Nalyats, have time and reign for the sake of truth and meekness and truth, he continues. The question is: are these the actions of the sword, or, moreover, does the sword not produce completely opposite actions: treachery, cruelty, barbarism, these inevitable fruits of any battle? Let us consider whether this is the sword whose actions are so different, that is, whether it is not the sword of the Word of God, a two-edged sword, sharpened by two covenants, the ancient covenant and the covenant of the new law, sharpened by the truth and wisdom of God, able to render to each according to his deeds. Therefore, Christ, the anointed of God, whose beauty and grace the Prophet extolled, could, even without participating in wars and battles, arm himself mysteriously with the sword of the Word of God. This is the sword with which David girded His thigh, proclaiming that He would come to earth to fulfill the commandments of His Father. Thy right hand will guide You wonderfully, he continues, that is, He will guide You with the power of spiritual grace, from which flows the knowledge of Christ. Your arrows are subtle (fiery): this is a hint of the commandments flowing around the whole world, of threats, executions and heartbreaks penetrating the conscience of everyone. People under You will fall to worship with humility. – Such are the wars and battles of Jesus Christ. In this way, He accepted and carried on His shoulders the selfish interests of not only Samaria, but also of all nations. It is clear that here the allegorical interests refer to the hands bearing the allegorical weapons. However, Christ, who descended to us, can be considered all the less militant because Isaiah did not proclaim Him as an earthly conqueror. “But if, say the Jews, Christ, who is to come, is not called Jesus, then why is this name called Christ, who has already come?” I will reveal to you the essence of your delusion. When it came to choosing the son of Nun as heir to Moses, what name was given to him instead of Absiah, his original name? Isn't it the name of Jesus? “Of course so,” you answer. – Know that the future was hidden under this symbol. Since Jesus Christ had to lead another people into the promised land, boiling with milk and honey, or better to say, into the deceit of eternal life and ineffable bliss, which we make up, who previously wandered in the deserts of this century; since it was not left to Moses, by the ancient law, but to Jesus Christ, by the grace of the new law, to accomplish this happy change and to circumcise us with the mysterious cornerstone, that is, with the commandments of Jesus Christ, often signified in Scripture by this symbol: then the military leader of the Jewish people was destined to foreshadow this miracle, and to consecrate it in the name of Jesus. The one who talked with Moses was the Son of God, who always allowed Himself to be seen; for no one has seen and lived God the Father. Therefore, when the Son of God spoke to Moses, He also said to the people: And behold, I will send My angel before you, that He may keep you on the way, and that He may bring you into the land that I have prepared for you. Listen to yourself, and listen to him, and do not disobey him; For it will not offend you: for My name is on it (Ex. 23:20). Indeed, Jesus, not Moses, was to lead the people into the promised land. But why does He call him His Angel? Because of the miracles that he was supposed to perform, and which you can read in St. Scripture, and because of his prophetic mission, by the power of which he divulged the will of God everywhere. In the same way, the Holy Spirit, speaking on behalf of God the Father through the mouth of the Prophet, calls the Angel of heaven the forerunner of Jesus Christ: Behold, I am sending My Angel before Your face, that is, Christ, who will prepare Your way before You (Mal. 3:1). The Holy Spirit repeatedly gave the name of Angels to those persons whom God chose as messengers of His power. John the Baptist is called not only an Angel, but also a lamp shining before Him. I have prepared a lamp for my anointed (Christ), says the Psalmist (Ps. 131:17). That is why Christ, who came to fulfill the prophecies, said to the Jews: He is a lamp of grief and light (John 5:35), not only because He prepared a way for Him in the wilderness, but also because, having revealed the Lamb of God, He enlightened the human mind with His preaching, so that people would recognize the Lamb in the person of the One whose suffering Moses had predicted. Thus, the son of Nun is named Joshua because of the future sacrament of his name. Christ Himself confirmed the name given to Him, desiring that He should not be called either an Angel or Absius, but Jesus, a name befitting the Christ of God. But just as the Virgin, from whom Christ was to be born, had to come from the descendants of David: then the Prophet, already without a figure, expresses himself like this: and a rod will come out of the root of Jesse, and a flower will arise from its root; and the Spirit of God will rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and piety; He will be filled with the Spirit of the fear of God (Isa. 11:1-3). - The question is: to which of the people is most appropriate the entire abundance of spiritual gifts, if not only Jesus Christ, whom the Prophet compares to a flower, because of His beauty and grace, and ties him to the root of Jesse because He was to come from him through Mary his mother? Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. He belonged to the family of David, as did Mary, who gave birth to Christ, and who was included in the Roman census. And as the Prophets announced that He would come from the root of Jesse, and that He would give the world an example of meekness, humility, patience and self-sacrifice: then let us consider whether anyone else came to earth with such a destiny. The person in whom we find all these qualities is Christ personified. Let us listen to what the Prophet says about Him: a man who is plagued and knows how to endure illness; like a sheep being led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers, silent, so it does not open its mouth. - He will not cry, he will weaken, his voice will be heard outside, he will not erase the broken reeds, that is, he will not erase the wavering faith of Israel, and he will not quench the smoking flax, that is, he will not extinguish the flickering reflections paganism, but truly it will shine and will not go out (Isa. 53:3, 7. 42:2-3). He cannot differentiate with the prophesied Christ. Each of the acts of the coming Christ must be cognizable only according to the rules proclaimed in St. Scripture. We read that He is distinguished by two qualities: prophecy and miracles. Let's go through each of these qualities. We will put an end to the present dispute if we show that Christ was proclaimed to us as a preacher. Isaiah’s words serve as proof of this: Cry mightily, and show no mercy, like a trumpet, lift up your voice, and tell my people their sins and the house of Jacob their iniquities. They seek Me day by day, and desire to understand My ways, because men have done righteousness, etc. (Isa. 58:1-2). And that He had to work miracles by the power of His Father, the same Isaiah declares this as follows: Behold, our God rewards judgment, and He will reward, He will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear; Then the lame will leap like a tree, and the tongue of the murmurs will be clear (Isa. 35:4-6). Christ performed many other miracles, which you yourself do not reject, because you said to Him: we stone You not because of Your works, but because You do them on the Sabbath day. 10) “You do not want to believe His passion and death because, in your opinion, it was not predicted that Christ would die on the cross. How is it possible, you say, for God to condemn His Son to such a blasphemous death, when He Himself said that everyone who hangs on a tree is cursed.” - In order to judge the essence of the matter here, it is necessary to delve into the meaning of this curse. In Deuteronomy it is said: If anyone has sin, the judgment of death, and let him die, and hang him on a tree, and do not let his body be buried on the tree, but bury him in a tomb on the same day, for everyone who is hanged on a tree is cursed of God, and do not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a lot (Deut. 21:22–23). Therefore, God does not curse Jesus Christ for this kind of death. On the contrary, He made a decree here that whoever is accused of a capital crime and condemned to death will be cursed by God, because he will be hanged on a tree as punishment for his crime. Christ, whose lips were never defiled by lies, and who was a perfect example of truth and humility, was given over to death of this kind, not as a punishment for atrocities, as I have already explained, but in fulfillment of the predictions of the Prophets, who showed you the very instruments of His death. So, for example, the Spirit of Christ inspired the Psalmist to say about Him in advance: I have repaid evil for good. - Even though I did not delight, then I repaid. - I plowed My hands and My nose. - And gave My gall for food, and gave Me drink for My thirst. - A cast of lots for My clothing (Ps. 21:48). Many other insults were predicted that you would inflict on Him. He endured all these reproaches not for any of His personal deeds, but solely in fulfillment of the events spoken by the mouths of the Prophets. Necessity demanded that the mystery of His Passion be destined by a preliminary prediction. The more it contradicted human reason, the more it should have aroused temptation, being announced openly without a veil. The more majestic it was, the more it was necessary to hide it, so that, having difficulty penetrating it, we would resort to the grace of God. That is why in ancient times Isaac, led by his father to the sacrifice, and carrying the wood of the burnt offering, signified the death of Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice abandoned by His Father, and carrying on itself the tree of His passion, the tree of the cross. Joseph also represents a symbol of Jesus Christ. In Joseph, persecuted by his brothers and sold by them to Egypt for his zeal for God, we not only see the image of the Savior, evenly betrayed by his treacherous brothers in the person of Judas; but the similarity is revealed even in the blessing given to him: the first-born of a youth, his kindness, the unicorn's rose, his tongues will be gored together even to the ends of the earth (Deut. 33:17). Does this emblem signify some strong animal or fabulous monster? Of course not. This young man is none other than Jesus Christ, a terrible Judge for some and a benign Redeemer for others. These horns are the ends of the cross; for even in the keel of the ship, which marks part of the sacred tree, its extremities are given the name of horns. Finally, the word “unicorn” refers to the trunk of the tree on which He was stretched out. By the power of these symbolic horns, our Christ daily catches the nations by faith, transferring them from earth to heaven; on the last day, according to His judgment, He will cast many from heaven to earth. This same young man appears again in St. Scripture, when Jacob, uttering his blessing on Simeon and Levi, that is, on the scribes and Pharisees who came from their tribe, exclaims in a prophetic spirit: Simeon and Levi, the brethren, committed offense of their own will (raised a persecution against Jesus Christ); Let not my soul come into their council, and let not my inner being cleave to their assembly, for in their anger they have beaten men (who else but the Prophets?), and in their lust they have cut the sinews of a youth (Gen. 49:5-6), that is, Christ, whom they killed, like the Prophets, and over whom they exhausted all their rage and hatred, nailing Him to the cross. However, to reproach them for killing any animal after beating the Prophets would be both ridiculous and insane if it were an ordinary youth or calf. What can we say about Moses, who prayed while sitting and stretching out his arms in a cross during the battle between Joshua and Amalek? Why did he accept this position then, as in the general confusion and to give his prayer greater strength, he should have kneeled to the ground, hit himself in the chest and sprinkled his face with ashes? Is it because where the name of Jesus fought, who was once supposed to finally trample the devil, the sign of the cross had to be erected, with which Joshua could win the victory? What was the significance of the fact that Moses, after prohibiting the sculpture of any image, lifted up a copper serpent on the tree as a saving spectacle of the Crucified One, when the Jews were wounded by snakes as punishment for their idolatry? The significance was that here, too, was an image of the miraculous power of the Cross, whose power triumphed over the ancient serpent: every person wounded by a snake, that is, by the angels of the devil, in order to be healed from the wound of his sins, had only to look with faith at this mysterious symbol of Jesus Christ, and he was saved by it. Let's continue. If you read from the Psalmist that the Lord reigns from the height of the tree 3: then I will expect from you an interpretation of this text. You probably won’t say that this is about any Jewish king who lost his life on the gallows, but you will agree that this refers to Jesus Christ, who conquered death by suffering on the cross. We also read in Isaiah: We were born a child. Doesn’t he say directly about the Son of God: from a child a Son was born to us and was given to us, and His rulership is on His frame (shoulder) (Is. 9:6). Tell me: which one, where the Sovereign wore on his shoulders the sign of his superiors instead of a diadem on his head, or a scepter in his hand, or what distinctive robe? Jesus Christ alone bore on His shoulder the power of the new glory and the seal of His greatness, that is, He bore the cross, so that, in accordance with the previous prophecy, the Lord would reign from the heights of the tree. God points to this same tree through the mouth of Jeremiah the Prophet: come, and let us put the tree into his bread, and we will destroy him from the land of the living, and let his name not be remembered (Jer. 11:19). Indeed, the tree was placed on Him. The Lord Himself subsequently explains this sacrament, calling His body that meat, which the Prophet previously called His body representatively. Do you need any other proof that the cross of our Lord was predicted? Read Psalm 21, where the passions of Christ are described and His glory is sung forward. Plow My hands and My nose. Isn't this a special kind of execution on the cross? The same is true when He asks His Father for help: save Me from the mouth of lions and My humility from the horns of the unicorn, as we explained above. Was David nailed to the gallows? Did any other Israeli King or Prophet have his hands and feet pierced? No! No one else was crucified on the cross except the one crucified by all the people with such a rumor. If behind this your hardness of heart rejects such explanations, and you mock them, then for me it is enough that the death of Jesus Christ was accurately predicted, and I have the right to conclude from this that it was committed on the cross, at least St. Scripture is silent about the manner of His death. I could not attribute death on the cross to anyone other than the person whose death was predicted. For me, one word from Isaiah is enough to be convinced of His passion, death and burial: for the sake of the iniquities of My people I was led to death; and I will give the wicked instead of His burial, and the rich instead of His death, for you will not commit iniquity, below flattery is found in His mouth, and the Lord wants to cleanse Him from the plague (Is. 53:8-10). In another place he says: His burial was taken from the environment (Isa. 57:2). There is no burial without death. Burial will not take place from the environment (people) without resurrection. Isaiah finally adds: for this sake He will inherit many, and He will divide the strong for their gain (Isaiah 53:12). Who is being spoken about here if not the One who, as has been proven above, was born so that His soul would be given over to death? To declare that this grace was a reward for the insults and death inflicted on Him means to testify that He will achieve this glory by His death, that is, He will achieve it after death by His resurrection. Darkness covered the earth at midday on the day of His death. The prophet Amos did not forget to mention this circumstance. He says: And it will come to pass in that day, says the Lord God, that the sun will set at noon, and the light of the earth will be darkened that day; And I will turn your holidays into pity and all your songs into lamentation, and I will put sackcloth on every backbone, and bald head on every head, and I will put it as the pity of a loved one, and those who are with him as a day of sickness (Am. 8:9-10). Isn’t this the same thing that Moses commanded himself to do in the first month of the year, when he commanded all the people of Israel to slaughter a lamb in the evening, and foretold that you would observe the festival of this day in bitterness, that is, the Passover of unleavened bread? This is the Passover of the Lord, he added, in other words, this is the passion of Christ. The foreshadowing was fulfilled. You put Jesus Christ to death on the first day of unleavened bread. And for the prophecy to come true, the day turned into night, and darkness covered the earth at noon; and thus God turned your festivals into pity and your songs into lamentation. What else can I say? The captivity and dispersion that befell you after the death of Christ were evenly predicted by the Holy Spirit. 11) Ezekiel announces your death as the due punishment for your Deicide, and announces it not only during the present age, but also on that great day of vengeance that will come after. General disaster! No one will escape it unless he is sealed with the blood of that very Jesus Christ whom you reject with contempt. Listen to what the Prophet says. And he (the Lord) spoke to me: Have you, O son of man, seen what the elders of the house of Israel do here, each of them in their secret beds, deciding beforehand: The Lord does not see, the Lord has forsaken the land. And he said to me: turn again and see the great lawlessness that they do. And bring me into the threshold of the gate of the house of the Lord, looking towards the north; and behold, gray-haired women weeping for Tammuz. And he said to me: Son of a man, you have seen this, and you will also see these great abominations of them. And bring me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and into the vestibule of the church of the Lord, between Elam and between the altar, like twenty and five men, who gave their rear to the church of the Lord, and their faces were straight towards the east; and these worship the sun to the east. And he said to me: You, son of man, saw that there was little food for the house of Judah, even though you had created the iniquities that you had done here, before you filled the land with iniquity, and you turned to anger Me. And these are the ones who spread out the vine to curse Me. And I will deal with them with wrath: My eye will not spare, neither will I have mercy. And they will cry in My ears with a great voice, and I will not hear them. - And they will cry in My ears with a great voice, saying: The vengeance of the city is drawing near, and every one has the vessels of destruction in his hand. And behold, six men walked from the path of the high gate that looks toward the north, and each one had an ax (of destruction) in his hand. And one man in the midst of them was clothed with a garment, and a belt of sapphire was about his loins, and he went down, and stood near the altar of copper. And the glory of the God of Israel came up from the Cherubim, which was upon them into the uncovered house, and the calling of the man was clothed in a garment, which had a girdle around his loins. And the Lord said to him: go through the midst of the city of Jerusalem, and give signs on the faces of the men who groan and suffer because of all the iniquities that happen among them. And this speech I hear: go into the city after him, cut him off, and have no mercy on your eyes, and have no mercy. Beat the old man and the youth and the virgin and the little children and the wives for consumption; But don’t touch everyone who has a sign on them. Begin from my sanctified ones (Ezek. 8:12–18, 9:1–6). The mystery of this hidden sign, which pre-arranged human life, and in which the Jews were not supposed to believe, was announced and predicted by many symbols. Moses mentioned it in Deuteronomy, saying: and you are lifted up from the earth, and you enter into it there, to inherit it. And the Lord your God will scatter you throughout all the nations, from the ends of the earth even to the ends of it. And among the nations they will not give you rest; your feet will be lower than the feet of your feet. And the Lord will give you there a sad heart and a fading hair and a fading soul. And your belly will hang before your eyes, and you will fear day and night, and you will not have faith in your belly (Deut. 28:63–66). This prophecy was fulfilled both by the coming of Christ, that is, by His birth, which we have described in detail above, and by His suffering, of which we have evenly presented evidence. This is why Daniel said that the vision and prophecy would be sealed; for Christ is the seal and fulfillment of all prophecies, having fulfilled exactly all that was prophesied in them concerning His person. Thus, after His coming and passion there is no longer any vision or prophecy. Therefore, He had the right to say that His presence among us served as the seal of vision and prophecy. As for us, by counting the years and showing that the supposed seventy-two and a half weeks have already passed, we clearly proved that Jesus Christ came, that is, became incarnate. Moreover, to present arguments that Christ suffered at the end of the last seven and a half weeks means to affirm positively that after seventy-two and a half weeks and after the destruction of the city, sacred rites and sacrifices should also have ceased. This time it is enough that we quickly ran through everything related to Christ. From this it is clear that He appeared as he was declared, based on the texts we have cited alone, and not to mention the many others that can be presented against the Jews. Indeed, they can neither question nor challenge what is written and what we have brought against them. On the one hand, how to refute what is according to St. Scripture? On the other hand, is it possible not to recognize as true those events that, similar to prophecy, were to follow the passion of Jesus Christ? And, in fact, the meaning of the prophecy could not have been fulfilled if Christ, after whom everything that was predicted was to be fulfilled, had not come into the world to testify that all the prophecies had been fulfilled. 12) Look. All nations emerge from the abyss of human error and enter into the knowledge of the Lord, into the knowledge of God the Creator and His God Christ. Dare you say that such a miraculous event was not foretold? I will stop you immediately with the words spoken by the Father to His Son from the Psalmist: Thou art my Son, this day I have begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I will give You the tongues of Your inheritance, and Your possession the ends of the earth (Psalm 2:7–8). You have no reason to call Him the son of David instead of Christ, and even more so you cannot claim that power over the earth was promised more to David, who reigned over Judea alone, than to Jesus Christ, who reigns over the whole world through faith in His Gospel. Listen also to Isaiah the Prophet: I the Lord called Thee in righteousness, to open the eyes of the blind, that is, those who are mired in error, to free them from their bounds, that is, to pluck them from the slavery of sin, to bring them out of the house of prison, that is, from the house of death, and those who sit in the darkness of ignorance. We cannot help but confess Jesus Christ when all these miracles are performed through Him. They were predicted for Jesus Christ alone, and in Him they are fulfilled, as we see from experience. 13) Just as the children of Israel believe that we are in error, recognizing Christ as having already come to us: then we will borrow from St. There is such an incident in the Scriptures that will clearly prove to them that the prophesied Christ has already come. Before this, we had already shown them through the testimony of the times and through Daniel’s reckoning that the coming of Christ, according to prophecy, had already followed. First of all, He had to be born in Bethlehem, in the city of Judah. And you,” says the Prophet, “in Bethlehem, the house of Euphrath, when you were small, you were among the thousands of Judah; From you will come forth an elder for Me to become a prince in Israel (Mic. 5:2). If the hitherto predicted leader was not born from the tribe of Judah and in Bethlehem, then he must someday come from the tribe of Judah and from Bethlehem. Meanwhile, we see that in the city of Bethlehem there is now not a single soul of the Israelite tribe left. Every Jew is forbidden to even stay in the vicinity of this country, so the threat of the Prophet Isaiah comes true literally: your land is empty, your land will be burned with fire (you yourself witnessed this during your war with the Romans), your country will be devoured by strangers before you, and desolately destroyed by strangers. In another place he says: You will see the King with glory, that is, you will see Jesus Christ working miracles for the glory of God the Father, and your eyes will see the earth from afar. In the distance from your land, which you have suffered due to your deserts, you will be allowed to look at it only from afar. Your soul will learn fear (Isa. 1:7, 33:17–18). Fear, no doubt, will take possession of you during your misfortune. - I ask: how will a leader be born in Judea, how will he come from Bethlehem, according to the predictions of the Prophets, while now there is not a single Israelite in Judea from that tribe from which Christ could be born? If He has not yet come, as the Jews claim, then from whom will He receive the anointing when He comes? The law says that during slavery it is not allowed to carry out the anointing that sanctifies kings. If the Jews cannot perform anointings, as Daniel decisively predicted that anointing would be required: then, therefore, they no longer have anointing, because they no longer have either a church or an altar where the anointing was performed, which gave royal dignity. So, if the anointing no longer exists, then who will teach it to the leader who is born in Bethlehem? Or how will he come from Bethlehem, when there is no one there of the blood of Israel? Let us show again, referring to the Prophets, that Christ has already suffered and ascended to heaven, and that He will one day descend from there again, as the Prophet announced. We read in Daniel that the hail must crumble after His first coming. The deed was fulfilled in our eyes. Indeed, as the Scripture says, the city and the holy will crumble with the elder who is coming; This elder, without a doubt, must come from Bethlehem and from the tribe of Judah. From this it is clear that the city was to be destroyed after the elder suffered the Passion: this is what the Prophets testify. I have stretched out My hand all day long to people who do not repent and speak against words, who do not walk the true path but follow their sins (Isa. 65:2). The same speech is in the Psalms: I have dug My hands and My nose; and cut off all my bones; They looked and despised Me. - And you gave My gall for food and gave Me a drink for My thirst (Ps. 21:18, 68:22). It was not David who endured all these cruelties in order to have the right to turn them into his merit, but Jesus Christ crucified. No one else's hands or feet are pierced except those who hang on the tree. On this occasion, David prophesied that the Lord would reign from the heights of the tree. The same Prophet in another place announced the wonderful fruits of this tree, saying: the earth has given its fruit (Ps. 66:7), that is, that virgin land, which the rains have not yet irrigated, which the waters have not yet fertilized, from which man was originally created, from which Jesus Christ was now born a Virgin according to the flesh. And the tree, it is also said, will yield its fruit in the field (Ezek. 34:27), not the tree that put our first parents to death, but the tree of the passion of Jesus Christ, on which was hung the life in which you did not believe. This is the mysterious tree through which Moses of old sweetened the bitter waters, when in the desert they revived the people dying of thirst, like us, being unfaithful, and being snatched from the darkness of this age, in which we were immersed and languished with mortal thirst, deprived of the saving drink of the divine Word, we drank the water of baptism, sweetened by the sacred tree of the passion of the Lord, and They accepted life with the faith that Israel rejected, according to the words of Jeremiah the Prophet: send it to Kidar, and look diligently, and see if such a thing were created. Even if the pagans change their gods, they are not gods; My people, having exchanged their glory for this, do not benefit from it. The heavens were horrified at this (Jer. 2:10–11). When and how could the sky be horrified? Undoubtedly, while Jesus Christ suffered. And on that day,” says Amos, “the earth will be troubled, and the sun will go down at noon (Amos 8:8–9). Jeremiah continues: - and (the sky) trembled greatly. When did it tremble, if not during the passion of Jesus Christ, while the earth shook, the curtain of the church was torn in two and the tombs were opened? For what reason? Because, as the Lord says, My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken the fountain of living waters for Me, and dug for themselves treasures of contrition that cannot contain water. This, without a doubt, says that the Jews will reject Jesus Christ, who is the source of living water. They will dig bottomless wells, that is, having scattered among different nations, they will establish synagogues among them, in which the Holy Spirit will no longer dwell, as before in the temple before the coming of Christ, which is the true temple of God. Isaiah hints at this thirst for the Holy Spirit with these words: behold, those who work for Me will eat, but you will hunger; All who work will drink, but you will thirst; All who work will rejoice, but you will be put to shame; All who work for Me will rejoice with gladness of heart, but you will cry out in the pain of your heart, and from the contrition of the Spirit you will weep; leave your name for the feeding of My chosen ones, but the Lord will beat you up; But those who work will call me a new name, and the earth will be blessed (Isa. 15:13–16). We encounter the mystery of this symbolic tree in the Book of Kings. When the sons of the prophets cut down trees on the banks of the Jordan; Then one of them had an iron fall off his ax and sank into the water. Prophet Elisha arrives. They ask him to retrieve the iron that fell into it from the river. The man of God cut off the tree and threw it there, and the iron floated up, and said: Take it for yourself; and he stretched out his hand and was taken (2 Kings 6:6–7); and the tree thrown into the water remained in it. From this the prophetic sons knew that the Spirit of Elijah rested on Elisha. What could be clearer than the mystery of this tree? It means that this age, plunged into the abyss of delusions, was freed from its bitterness through the baptism of the tree of the passion of Jesus Christ, so that what had previously perished in Adam from the tree was corrected from the tree in Jesus Christ; and we, having become heirs of the Prophets, would now endure the same sorrows that they endured for their divine Religion. The Jews, indeed, stoned some of them, drove others out, and put others to various kinds of death. They can't deny it. Here is another tree that Isaac the son of Abram carried on his shoulders to sacrifice himself when God demanded it. Since this was a symbol, the fulfillment of which Christ provided to Himself: Isaac was spared, and in his place a ram was lifted up to the altar, held by its horns in a bush. Christ also carried the wood of the cross on His shoulders and nailed His body to its horns or ends, crowned with thorns. He had to be sacrificed for the salvation of all nations: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers is silent. No matter how much Pilate asked Him, He did not answer him a word. He died amid the humiliations of the pronouncement of the sentence. Who can confess His generation? And indeed, no one knew the mystery of the conception and birth of Jesus Christ, When the Virgin Mary found herself pregnant with the Word of God. And taking from the land of the living, when after the resurrection from the dead He solemnly ascended into heaven, in accordance with the prophetic saying of Hosea: they will rise to Me in the morning, saying: Let us go and turn to the Lord our God, for He will heal and heal us: in two days, on the third day we will rise again (Hosea 6:1), that is, on the day of His glorious resurrection, that Spirit, whose birth or suffering the Jews did not want to acknowledge, will be translated from earth to heaven, from where He descended into the womb of the Virgin. So, if the Jews think that their Christ, about whose coming we have given so much evidence, has not yet come, then at least let them recognize the reality of the misfortune that the prophecy announced to them after His coming, in retribution for their contempt, cruelty and deicide. Since, according to the words of Isaiah the Prophet, man will cast out his abominations, gold and silver, which he has created, and worship vain things and bats, that is, since the nations, that is, we, learning the truth by the light of Christ, have crushed their idols, the Jews can see with their own eyes that the following saying has been exactly fulfilled: behold. The Lord Lord of hosts will take away from Jerusalem and from Judea the wise Architect, who created the church, the church of God, the holy city and the house of the Lord. From that time on, the grace of God really stopped pouring out on them. And the commandment is like a cloud, not to rain rain on my grapes, that is, it commands the blessings of heaven not to enrich the house of Israel in the future. Why is this so? Then thorns mounted on him, like on a falcon, in order to crown the Lord with it, and instead of truth, utter the cry of curse with which He was nailed to the cross. When in this way the Jews were deprived of the rain of previous grace: then at the same time the law and the prophets ceased to exist until John. The Font of Siloam, which healed the infirmities of Israel before the coming of Christ, has since lost its power, because the blind stubbornness of this people is the reason that for their sake the name of God is blasphemed among the nations. Indeed, it was for their sake that this desecration took place in the period from Tiberius to Vespasian. Then, as punishment for their crimes, for not recognizing Christ while He visited them, their land was now empty, they were burned with fire, their country was devoured by strangers before us, and devastated by strangers. The daughter of Zion will remain like a tabernacle in the vineyard and like a vegetable storehouse in the garden. Since when? Since Israel did not know the Lord, neither did His people understand; forsaking the Lord and angering the Holy One of Israel (Isa. 2:20, 3:1, 3, 5:6, 52:5. 1:3, 4, 7–8). What does this threat also mean: you will not accept punishment, the sword will eat you (Jer. 2:30), if not that when Christ came, the Jews died because they did not listen to Him? Is it not He who prays to His Father in the Psalmist for the scattering of this people? Spread out Your power and bring me down (Ps. 63:12). Is it not He who at the same time, through the mouth of Isaiah, calls destruction on their head: For my sake, this happened to you, you will sleep in sorrow (Is. 50:11). As it was predicted, on the one hand, that the Jews would be scattered and consumed for the sake of Jesus Christ, and on the other hand, it is known that their dispersion and destruction took place in our eyes: from this it is clear that the Jews underwent this misfortune really for the sake of Jesus Christ. Here everything agrees with the other: the meaning of St. Scriptures, origin and order of time. If it is true that these misfortunes were predicted because of Jesus Christ, then should they not endure them after His coming? But where can we get the daughter of Zion, who was to be abandoned, when now the daughter of Zion no longer exists? Where are the cities that are to be burned when they are already in the dust? Where is the people that must be scattered, when they now wander throughout all the earth? Return to Judaea the State that Jesus Christ could have gained, before you begin to claim that another Christ will come. 14) Find out, as if in addition, on what your error is based. The prophets described the dual coming of Jesus Christ under two images. The first image was supposed to consist of humiliation of all kinds. Like a sheep being led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers, it is silent. His appearance is dishonest. Be before the Lord like a root in a thirsty land. There is no form of Him, lower than glory, and we saw Him, and not in the name of form, nor kindness, was humbled more than all the sons of men, a man in the plague, and knowing to endure illness, because His face was turned away dishonorably and not accounted for (Isa. 53: 2-3), then the Father put Him as if under a stone of stumbling, and made Him a little for a while from the angels. He says about Himself: I am a worm, and not a man, the reproach of men and the humiliation of people (Ps. 8:6, 21:7). These signs of humiliation belong to His first coming; His second coming will be marked by greatness and glory. Then He will no longer be a stone of stumbling and temptation, but a stone, which was built carelessly, and which became the head of the corner (Ps. 117:22) in the church, or that Daniel stone, which was torn away from the mountain, and struck and destroyed to the end the dreamy greatness of the kingdoms of this world. Let us listen to what the same Prophet Daniel further says about the second coming of Christ: And behold, the Son of man came upon the clouds of heaven, and came even to the Ancient of Days, and was brought before Him: And to Him was given power and honor and a kingdom, and all men, tribes and nations will serve for Him; His power is everlasting power, which will not pass away, and His kingdom will not be scattered (Dan. 2 and Dan. 7;). Then His face will shine, His beauty will surpass the beauty of all the sons of men. It is said about Him; more beautiful in kindness than the sons of men: grace is poured out on Your lips; For this sake, God bless You forever. Gird Your sword on Your thigh, O Mighty One. By Your beauty and Your kindness, come and succeed and reign for the sake of truth and meekness and righteousness. Behold, Thy Father, having made You a little less than the angels for a while, crowned You with glory and honor, and placed His hand over the works (Ps. 44 and 8). They will look upon His blood, and they will mourn for Him (Zechariah 12:10). Why is this crying? Because they (the Jews) did not know how and did not want to know Him in the state of His human humiliation. Man is, Jeremiah exclaims, and who will know Him? (Jer. 17:9). He is God, answers Isaiah, but who will confess His race? The Prophet Zechariah also saying: and the Lord showed us Jesus the great Priest (Zechariah 3:1), presents to us in the person of Jesus, revealing the mystery of His sacred name, the dual descent of Jesus Christ as the true and great Priest of His Father. Firstly, He is clothed in sackcloth, that is, in passionate and mortal flesh, when He fights with the devil, who tempts Him after His baptism, and puts treacherous thoughts into the heart of Judas. Secondly, He strips off His former humiliation like an unclean garment, puts on a bright robe and places a clean turban on His head, that is, He accepts the glory and greatness of His second coming. You cannot say that this is about Jesus, the son of Jehoiada; for he never wore unclean clothes, but always wore decent or high priestly vestments, and was never deprived of his dignity. No! It was precisely the Supreme Priest of God the Father, Jesus Christ, who, having sacrificed Himself for us through all humiliation, and having put on a bright robe after His resurrection, was called the great Priest of God. Should I talk about two goats, which, according to the law of Moses, were presented for the general cleansing of the people (Lev. 16:7–10)? Do they not depict a dual aspect of Christ? Under the symbol of these two animals, similar to each other in everything, I see the Lord Himself, who must, in the form in which He was here, be recognized from His offenders. One of the two goats, the cursed one, expelled into the desert and taking upon himself their iniquities into an impassable land, bears obvious signs of the passions of Jesus Christ, who was desecrated, showered with curses and crucified outside the city, as if in the desert. The other, offered by the Bishop as a cleansing sacrifice of burnt offering for sins, reminds me of that solemn day when the Priests of the spiritual church, that is, the Church, having been cleansed from all filth, will enjoy the most excellent gifts of grace, while others will hunger for salvation and will be far from it. There is no more doubt. The first coming of Christ had to be fulfilled among humiliations and insults: the figures denoting it are covered in darkness for many. The second, on the contrary, is illuminated with light and in accordance with the dignity of God. That is why the Jews only had to raise their eyes to be convinced of this second appearance by its brilliance and radiance, while veils and infirmities, not characteristic of God, at the first appearance could darken their views. And even now they claim that their Christ has not yet come, because they have not seen Him in all his glory; but they do not want to know that He must first appear in humiliation and shame. Let's stop. We have cited enough texts regarding Jesus Christ as evidence that He came in the form that was announced, so that we could understand from the comparison of such a wonderful agreement between different places of St. Scriptures that the events predicted by the Prophets, and which were to take place after Jesus Christ, were fulfilled in accordance with divine revelation. Indeed, if He had not come, after whom these events were to happen, then those events that were announced about His coming could not have come to fruition. Seeing that the peoples come from the abyss of human delusions and turn to God the Creator and His Christ, you do not dare deny that this miracle was not predicted. If you attempt this, then I will oppose to you only the promise spoken by God the Father to His Son: You are My Son; Today I gave birth to You; ask from Me and I will give You the tongues of Your heritage and Your possession to the ends of the earth. You cannot claim that this prophecy refers more to Solomon, the son of David, than to Jesus Christ. Power over the whole earth was not promised to the son of David. Solomon reigned only over Judea. But it was not so with the Son of God: He enlightened the entire universe with the rays of His Gospel. His throne is eternal, say the Prophets. To whom does eternity belong: the Son of God or Solomon, the one-day, so to speak, King who reigned over Israel alone? Nations that did not know Jesus Christ are now calling on Him. People are turning to Christ, whom they have never heard of before. You cannot refer to the future here when things are happening in your eyes. Deny that these events were not predicted when they are clearly fulfilled in front of everyone; or as if they are being fulfilled, despite the fact that nothing is said about them in Scripture. If you are not able to reject both, then it is necessary that all this be accomplished in the person of the One whom the Prophets foretold. The calculation Tertullian gives here is somewhat erroneous; but the essence of the matter is true. Tertullian's calculus is not correct here either. There is no such saying in the Slavic Psalter. Written in 203 A.D. You might be interested in: