4

by the obscurity of what is said, preparing safety for those who say it. And whence is this clear? For we ought to be held accountable, even if we speak among friends; for perhaps many who are not friends are also present. Let them therefore learn these things, so that they too may become friends. I said that if the Jews had heard the evils that were about to befall them, and that Jerusalem would be captured on account of Christ—this everlasting capture, which has no change—if they had heard these things clearly from the prophets, they would have immediately killed those who said them. Whence then is this clear? First, from their character; for they were frenzied and beastly. It is a people always thirsting for prophetic blood, their hands practiced in the slaughter of the saints. The great Elijah cries out these things against them, saying: Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars. Christ again, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you. And Isaiah, accusing them in harmony with these, cried out: Your hands are full of blood. And again Christ: Your fathers killed the prophets, and you build their tombs; fill up the measure of your fathers. Do you see how both the Master and the servants testify to their bloodthirstiness? And what is: Fill up the measure of your fathers? Kill me also, he says; add the master's slaughter to the blood of the servants. For though they slaughtered ten thousand men, they were all fellow servants; but when they stretched out their hands against the Master, then the measure was filled; and rightly so. For as long as they had not killed the Master, they had a hope of salvation, and they were expecting that the Lamb of God would come to take away the sin of the world; but when they laid hands on the physician, and insulted the very mercy seat, and turned away from the one who came to forgive sins, they then fell away from all hope. For this reason he says: Fill up the measure of your fathers. Yes, he says; but that they are bloodthirsty and accursed has been shown from many testimonies; but whence is it clear that they would not have spared the prophets, if they had heard that Jerusalem would be 56.169 destroyed, that the law would cease, that the Old Covenant would be changed? It is indeed clear even from what has been said; but nevertheless I will make the proof clearer again from the Scriptures themselves. For if they ever heard a prophet saying that Jerusalem would be destroyed with a temporary destruction, when they ought to have changed and turned away the wrath of God, they vented their anger on the prophet. And that this is true, listen to their histories. The Persians were once besieging their city, and a barbarian army was encamped outside; and the dangers were not unclear, but the city Jerusalem was then in the midst of a trap, with all armed and surrounding it from without; but yet, though the terrible things were so manifest, when Jeremiah came and said to them that the city will be handed over into the hands of the Chaldeans; and yet this was not even a prophecy; for their own eyes saw what was about to happen; but nevertheless because he spoke of things that were manifest and before their eyes, the polluted and senseless and ungrateful towards their benefactors became so enraged as to consider him a traitor and a destroyer of the city, and to say that 'He is weakening the hands of this people.' And yet he was strengthening them, and yet he was stirring up their zeal, and leading them to God, placing around them the unbreakable and invincible wall; but they, considering none of these things, ordered him to be put to death. For they always gave such rewards to their benefactors, and when the king pardoned him, not even so did they give way, but since they were not strong enough to kill him, they cast him into the pit of mire. 4. But if they could not bear the hearing of a temporary captivity, how the prophecy of the

4

τῇ ἀσαφείᾳ τῶν λεγομένων τοῖς λέγουσι παρασκευάζοντες ἀσφάλειαν. Καὶ πόθεν δῆλον τοῦτο; ∆εῖ γὰρ καὶ εὐθύνας ἡμᾶς ἀπαιτεῖσθαι, εἰ καὶ ἐν φίλοις λέγομεν· καὶ γὰρ πολλοὶ ἴσως καὶ τῶν οὐ φίλων πάρεισι. Μανθανέτωσαν τοίνυν ταῦτα κἀκεῖνοι, ἵνα καὶ αὐτοὶ φίλοι γένωνται. Εἶπον, ὅτι εἰ ἤκουσαν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι τὰ μέλλοντα αὐτοὺς καταλήψεσθαι κακὰ, καὶ ὅτι τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα ἁλώσεται διὰ τὸν Χριστὸν τὴν ἅλωσιν ταύτην τὴν ἀθάνατον, καὶ οὐκ ἔχουσαν μεταβολὴν, εἰ ἤκουσαν φανερῶς παρὰ τῶν προφητῶν ταῦτα, εὐθέως ἂν τοὺς ταῦτα λέγοντας ἀπέκτειναν. Πόθεν οὖν τοῦτο δῆλον; Πρῶτον μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν τρόπων αὐτῶν· μανικοὶ γὰρ καὶ θηριώδεις ἦσαν. ∆ῆμός ἐστιν αἱμάτων ἀεὶ διψῶν προφητικῶν, αἱ χεῖρες αὐτῶν ἐμελέτησαν ἐν ταῖς σφαγαῖς τῶν ἁγίων. Ταῦτα ὁ μέγας Ἡλίας αὐτῶν καταβοᾷ λέγων· Κύριε, τοὺς προφήτας σου ἀπέκτειναν, τὰ θυσιαστήριά σου κατέσκαψαν. Ὁ Χριστὸς πάλιν, Ἱερουσαλὴμ, Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ἡ ἀποκτείνασα τοὺς προφήτας, καὶ λιθοβολοῦσα τοὺς ἀπεσταλμένους πρὸς αὐτήν. Καὶ ὁ Ἡσαΐας συνῳδὰ τούτοις αὐτῶν κατηγορῶν, ἐβόα· Αἱ χεῖρες ὑμῶν αἵματος πλήρεις. Καὶ πάλιν ὁ Χριστός· Οἱ πατέρες ὑμῶν ἀπέκτειναν τοὺς προφήτας, ὑμεῖς δὲ οἰκοδομεῖτε τὰ μνήματα αὐτῶν· πληρώσατε τὸ μέτρον τῶν πατέρων ὑμῶν. Ὁρᾷς πῶς καὶ ὁ ∆εσπότης καὶ οἱ δοῦλοι μιαιφονίαν αὐτῶν μαρτυροῦσι; Τί δέ ἐστι· Πληρώσατε τὸ μέτρον τῶν πατέρων ὑμῶν; Ἀποκτείνατε, φησὶ, κἀμέ· πρόσθετε τοῖς δουλικοῖς αἵμασι τὴν δεσποτικὴν σφαγήν. Εἰ γὰρ μυρίους ἔσφαξαν ἀνθρώπους, ἀλλὰ συνδούλους πάντας· ὅτε δὲ κατὰ τοῦ ∆εσπότου τὰς χεῖρας ἐξέτειναν, τότε ἐπληρώθη τὸ μέτρον· καὶ εἰκότως. Ἕως μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἀπέκτειναν τὸν ∆εσπότην, εἶχον ἐλπίδα σωτηρίας, καὶ προσεδόκων ὅτι ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐλθὼν ἀρεῖ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου· ἐπειδὴ δὲ τὸν ἰατρὸν διεχειρίσαντο, καὶ εἰς αὐτὸ τὸ ἱλαστήριον ὕβρισαν, καὶ τὸν ἐλθόντα ἀφεῖναι τὰ ἁμαρτήματα ἀπεστράφησαν, πάσης λοιπὸν ἐλπίδος ἐξέπεσον. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο λέγει· Πληρώσατε τὸ μέτρον τῶν πατέρων ὑμῶν. Ναὶ, φησίν· ἀλλ' ὅτι μὲν μιαιφόνοι καὶ ἐναγεῖς, ἀποδέδεικται ἐκ πολλῶν μαρτυριῶν· πόθεν δὲ δῆλον, ὅτι τῶν προφητῶν οὐκ ἂν ἐφείσαντο, εἰ ἤκουσαν ὅτι τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα κατα56.169 στραφήσεται, ὅτι ὁ νόμος παυθήσεται, ὅτι ἡ Παλαιὰ ἀλλαγήσεται; Μάλιστα μὲν καὶ ἐκ τῶν εἰρημένων δῆλον· πλὴν ἀλλ' ἐξ αὐτῶν τῶν Γραφῶν πάλιν ποιήσομαι τὴν ἀπόδειξιν σαφεστέραν. Εἰ γάρ ποτε ἤκουσαν προφήτου λέγοντος, ὅτι τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα καταστραφήσεται καταστροφὴν πρόσκαιρον, δέον αὐτοὺς μεταβάλλεσθαι καὶ ἀποκρούεσθαι τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν ὀργὴν, εἰς τὸν προφήτην ἠφίεσαν τὸν θυμόν. Καὶ ὅτι τοῦτό ἐστιν ἀληθὲς, αὐτῶν ἀκούσατε τῶν ἱστοριῶν. Ἐπολιόρκουν τὴν πόλιν αὐτῶν οἱ Πέρσαι ποτὲ, καὶ βαρβαρικὸν στρατόπεδον ἔξω περιεκάθητο· καὶ τὰ τῶν κινδύνων οὐκ ἦν ἄδηλα, ἀλλ' ἐν μέσῃ παγίδι ἡ πόλις ἦν τότε Ἱερουσαλὴμ, ὡπλισμένων ἁπάντων καὶ περιεστώτων ἔξωθεν· ἀλλ' ὅμως οὕτω φανερῶν ὄντων τῶν δεινῶν, ἐπειδὴ Ἱερεμίας ἐλθὼν εἶπε πρὸς αὐτοὺς, ὅτι ἡ πόλις παραδοθήσεται εἰς χεῖρας Χαλδαίων· καίτοι τοῦτο οὐδὲ προφητεία ἦν· οἱ γὰρ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτῶν ἑώρων τὰ συμβησόμενα· ἀλλ' ὅμως ἐπειδὴ τὰ φανερὰ καὶ πρὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν εἶπεν, οἱ μιαροὶ καὶ ἀναίσθητοι καὶ περὶ τοὺς εὐεργέτας ἀγνώμονες οὕτως ἐμάνησαν, ὡς προδότην αὐτὸν καὶ λυμεῶνα τῆς πόλεως νομίσαι, καὶ εἰπεῖν, ὅτι Ἐκλύει τὰς χεῖρας τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου. Καὶ μὴν ἐστερέου, καὶ μὴν διήγειρε τὴν προθυμίαν αὐτῶν, καὶ πρὸς Θεὸν ἦγε, τὸ ἀῤῥαγὲς καὶ ἀκαταμάχητον αὐτοῖς περιτιθεὶς τεῖχος· ἀλλ' οὐδὲν τούτων ἐννοήσαντες ἐκεῖνοι, ἐκέλευον αὐτὸν ἀναιρεῖσθαι. Τοιαύτας γὰρ τοῖς εὐεργέταις ἀεὶ τὰς ἀμοιβὰς ἀπεδίδοσαν, καὶ τοῦ βασιλέως συγγνόντος, οὐδὲ οὕτως ἐνέδωκαν, ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ἀνελεῖν οὐκ ἴσχυσαν. εἰς τὸν τοῦ βορβόρου λάκκον ἐνέβαλον. δʹ. Εἰ δὲ προσκαίρου αἰχμαλωσίας ἀκοὴν οὐκ ἤνεγκαν, πῶς τὴν πρόῤῥησιν τῆς