VII.

An Answer to the Jews.1    [This treatise was written while our author was a Catholic.  This seems to me the best supported of the theories concerning it. Let us accept Pamelius, for once and date it a.d. 198. Dr. Allix following Baronius, will have it as late as a.d. 208. Neander thinks the work, after the quotation from Isaiah in the beginning of chapter ninth, is not our author’s, but was finished by another hand, clumsily annexing what is said on the same chapter of Isaiah in the Third Book against Marcion. It is only slightly varied. Bp. Kaye admits the very striking facts instanced by Neander, in support of this theory, but demolishes, with a word any argument drawn from thence that the genuine work was written after the author’s lapse. This treatise is sufficiently annotated by Thelwall, and covers ground elsewhere gone over in this Series. My own notes are therefore very few.]

Chapter I.—Occasion of Writing. Relative Position of Jews and Gentiles Illustrated.

It happened very recently a dispute was held between a Christian and a Jewish proselyte. Alternately with contentious cable they each spun out the day until evening. By the opposing din, moreover, of some partisans of the individuals, truth began to be overcast by a sort of cloud. It was therefore our pleasure that that which, owing to the confused noise of disputation, could be less fully elucidated point by point, should be more carefully looked into, and that the pen should determine, for reading purposes, the questions handled.

For the occasion, indeed, of claiming Divine grace even for the Gentiles derived a pre-eminent fitness from this fact, that the man who set up to vindicate God’s Law as his own was of the Gentiles, and not a Jew “of the stock of the Israelites.”2    Comp. Phil. iii. 5. For this fact—that Gentiles are admissible to God’s Law—is enough to prevent Israel from priding himself on the notion that “the Gentiles are accounted as a little drop of a bucket,” or else as “dust out of a threshing-floor:”3    See Isa. xl. 15: “dust of the balance,” Eng. Ver.; ῥοπὴ ζυγοῦ LXX. For the expression “dust out of a threshing-floor,” however, see Ps. i. 4, Dan. ii. 35. although we have God Himself as an adequate engager and faithful promiser, in that He promised to Abraham that “in his seed should be blest all nations of the earth;”4    See Gen. xxii. 18; and comp. Gal. iii. 16, and the reference in both places. and that5    This promise may be said to have been given “to Abraham,” because (of course) he was still living at the time; as we see by comparing Gen. xxi. 5 with xxv. 7 and 26. See, too, Heb. xi. 9. out of the womb of Rebecca “two peoples and two nations were about to proceed,”6    Or, “nor did He make, by grace, a distinction.”—of course those of the Jews, that is, of Israel; and of the Gentiles, that is ours. Each, then, was called a people and a nation; lest, from the nuncupative appellation, any should dare to claim for himself the privilege of grace.  For God ordained “two peoples and two nations” as about to proceed out of the womb of one woman: nor did grace7    Or, “nor did He make, by grace, a distinction.” make distinction in the nuncupative appellation, but in the order of birth; to the effect that, which ever was to be prior in proceeding from the womb, should be subjected to “the less,” that is, the posterior. For thus unto Rebecca did God speak: “Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be divided from thy bowels; and people shall overcome people, and the greater shall serve the less.”8    See Gen. xxv. 21–23, especially in the LXX.; and comp. Rom. ix. 10–13. Accordingly, since the people or nation of the Jews is anterior in time, and “greater” through the grace of primary favour in the Law, whereas ours is understood to be “less” in the age of times, as having in the last era of the world9    Sæculi. attained the knowledge of divine mercy:  beyond doubt, through the edict of the divine utterance, the prior and “greater” people—that is, the Jewish—must necessarily serve the “less;” and the “less” people—that is, the Christian—overcome the “greater.” For, withal, according to the memorial records of the divine Scriptures, the people of the Jews—that is, the more ancient—quite forsook God, and did degrading service to idols, and, abandoning the Divinity, was surrendered to images; while “the people” said to Aaron, “Make us gods to go before us.”10    Ex. xxxii. 1, 23; Acts vii. 39, 40. And when the gold out of the necklaces of the women and the rings of the men had been wholly smelted by fire, and there had come forth a calf-like head, to this figment Israel with one consent (abandoning God) gave honour, saying, “These are the gods who brought us from the land of Egypt.”11    Ex. xxxii. 4: comp. Acts vii. 38–41; 1 Cor. x. 7; Ps. cvi. 19–22. For thus, in the later times in which kings were governing them, did they again, in conjunction with Jeroboam, worship golden kine, and groves, and enslave themselves to Baal.12    Comp. 1 Kings xii. 25–33; 2 Kings xvii. 7–17 (in LXX. 3 and 4 Kings). The Eng. ver. speaks of “calves;” the LXX. call them “heifers.” Whence is proved that they have ever been depicted, out of the volume of the divine Scriptures, as guilty of the crime of idolatry; whereas our “less”—that is, posterior—people, quitting the idols which formerly it used slavishly to serve, has been converted to the same God from whom Israel, as we have above related, had departed.13    Comp. 1 Thess. i. 9, 10. For thus has the “less”—that is, posterior—people overcome the “greater people,” while it attains the grace of divine favour, from which Israel has been divorced.

CAPUT PRIMUM.

Proxime accidit; disputatio habita est christiano et proselyto judaeo. Alternis vicibus contentioso fane uterque diem in vesperam traxerunt: obstrepentibus etiam quibusdam ex partibus singulorum , nubilo quodam veritas obumbrabatur. Placuit ergo quod per concentum disputationis 0597B minus plene potuit dilucidari, inspici curiosius, et lectionis stylo quaestiones retractatas terminare. Nam occasio quidem defendendi etiam gentibus sibi divinam gratiam, habuit hinc praerogativam, quod sibi vindicare Dei legem instituerit homo ex gentibus, nec de prosapia Israelitum judaeus. Hoc enim sat esse , posse gentes admitti ad Dei legem, ne Israel adhuc superbiat, quod gentes velut stillicidium situlae, aut pulvis ex area deputentur (Is. XL, 15). Quamquam habeamus ipsum Deum idoneum pollicitatorem et fidelem sponsorem, qui Abrahae promiserat quod in semine ejus benedicerentur omnes nationes terrae (Gen., XXII, 18), et quod ex utero Rebeccae duo populi et duae gentes essent processurae (Gen., XXV, 23): utique Judaeorum, id est Israel; et Gentium, id est noster. Uterque ergo et populus et gens est 0597C appellatus, ne de nominis appellatione privilegium gratiae sibi quis audeat defendere. Duos etenim populos et duas gentes processuras ex unius foeminae utero Deus destinavit, nec discrevit gratiam in 0598A nominis appellatione, sed in partus editione; ut qui prior esset de utero processurus, minori subjiceretur, id est posteriori. Sic namque ad Rebeccam Deus locutus est, dicens: Duae gentes in utero tuo sunt, et duo populi de ventre tuo dividentur, et populus populum superabit, et major serviet minori (Ib.). Itaque cum populus seu gens in Judaeorum anterior sit tempore, et major per gratiam primae dignationis in lege, noster vero minor aetate temporum intelligatur, utpote in ultimo saeculi spatio adeptus notitiam divinae miserationis, procul dubio secundum edictum divinae locutionis, prior et major populus, id est Judaicus, serviat necesse est minori; et minor populus, id est Christianus, superet majorem. Nam et secundum Scripturarum divinarum memorias populus Judaeorum 0598B major , id est antiquior, derelicto Deo, idolis servivit, et divinitate abrelicta, simulacris fuit deditus, dicente populo ad Aaron: Fac nobis deos qui nos antecedant (Exod., XXXII, 23). Quod cum ex monilibus foeminarum et annulis virorum aurum fuisset igne conflatum, et processisset eis bubulum caput, huic figmento universus Israel, relicto Deo honorem dederunt, dicentes: Hi sunt dei qui nos ejecerunt de terra Aegypti. Sic namque posterioribus temporibus, quibus reges eis imperabant, et cum Hieroboam vaccas aureas et lucos colebant, et Bahali se mancipabant: unde probatur eos semper idololatriae crimine reos designatos ex instrumento divinarum Scripturarum. Noster vero populus minor, id est posterior, relictis idolis quibus ante deserviebat, ad eumdem Deum conversus est a quo Israel, ut supra 0598C memoravimus, abscesserat. Sic namque populus minor, id est posterior, populum majorem superavit, dum gratiam divinae dignationis consequitur, a qua Israel est repudiatus.