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the result. At any rate, the nation of the Jews no longer practices idolatry in the same way as their fathers, but was truly ashamed, seeing the demons from their fathers, I mean those from the gentiles, converted to the word of piety through the teaching of Christ. Therefore the prophecy has been fulfilled which said: Because they will be ashamed of their idols, which they themselves wanted, and they were ashamed in the gardens, which they desired; for their fathers mostly performed their idolatrous rites in the gardens. 1.24 Those who were once the "vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth" and a "shady olive tree" and "a well-climbing vine of Israel," he teaches that they will suffer such a turn for the worse as to be compared to a terebinth tree, and not even one in bloom, but one that has cast off its leaves. This will be a sign of having no share at all in moistness nor of drawing in any vital power, but of bearing only a multitude of hardened souls, and for this reason being compared to the very hard and very dry fruits of the terebinth. And such would you see the present multitudes of the nation of the Jews, which is why it is said: as a terebinth that has cast off its leaves, and according to Symmachus: as a terebinth whose leaves have fallen off. And they have also become as a garden having no water; for if one were to look at their recitations of the divine scriptures, the readings of the law and the prophets, the books of the historical and poetic words, the modes of hymnody and psalmody, he will see truly a paradise and a meadow of all sorts of good things. But if he were to seek among them the ensouled and fruitful and living Word, of which "he who drinks will have a spring of water welling up to eternal life," he would not find it. Therefore it is prophesied "as a garden having no water." 1.25 He says their strength will be like straw, not of wheat nor of any other of the necessities, but as the straw of tow, because "the strong man and the strong woman, the strength of bread and the strength of water, the giant and the mighty man" have been taken away from them. Therefore they are not able to say in the same way as the disciples of Christ: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," and: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress," and the rest. For so their strength has become as the straw of tow, so that they not only lost their freedom, in which they formerly took pride, enjoying autonomy and their own kingdom, but also serve any Roman soldiers who happen by. And their works have become as sparks, since their deeds become causes of fire, inasmuch as they are "building not gold nor silver nor precious stones, but only wood and hay and straw." Therefore it is said in addition to all these things: and the lawless and the sinners shall be burned together, and there will be no one to quench it. You see how the word threatens them with burning and conflagration. And this is the end of the present prophecy against them; which indeed came to pass literally, immediately and not long after their audacious act against our Savior, when the metropolis was burned, and when the impious within it, from their own sparks, "stored up for themselves the unquenchable fire" which is eternal, and "the wrath of God on the day of wrath." 1.26 Consequently, after the accusation against the people of the circumcision and after the verdict brought against them, the prophetic spirit moves on to the calling of the gentiles, prophesying the conversion of the gentiles to God. Then, following these things, it makes mention of a new law and word, and of a new mountain and house of God, to which it says the foreign nations will one day come, having left their ancestral gods, and coming to know the God of the prophets, who among them is called the God of Jacob. And it gives a very clear sign of the time in which these things were destined to be accomplished; and the sign proclaims that there will be peace at that time among all the nations, so that there would no longer be toparchies and polyarchies, nor would the nations be divided, warring against one another, nor the cities within each nation

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τὸ ἀποτέλεσμα· οὐκέτι γοῦν τὸ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνος εἰδωλολατρεῖ ὁμοίως τοῖς αὐτῶν πατράσιν, ἀλλ' ᾐσχύνθη ἀληθῶς, ὁρῶντες τοὺς ἐκ πατέρων δαίμονας, λέγω δὲ τοὺς ἐξ ἐθνῶν διὰ τῆς Χριστοῦ διδασκαλίας ἐπὶ τὸν τῆς εὐσεβείας λόγον μεταβεβλημένους. οὐκοῦν πεπλήρωται ἡ πρόρρησις φήσασα· διότι αἰσχυνθήσονται ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων αὐτῶν, ἃ αὐτοὶ ἠβούλοντο, καὶ ἐπῃσχύνθησαν ἐν τοῖς κήποις, ἃ ἐπεθύμησαν· ἐπὶ γὰρ τῶν κήπων τὸ πλεῖστον τὰ τῆς εἰδωλολατρίας οἱ πατέρες αὐτῶν συνετέλουν. 1.24 Οἱ πάλαι ὄντες «ἀμπελὼν κυρίου σαβαὼθ» καὶ «ἐλαία εὔσκιος» καὶ «ἄμπελος εὐκληματοῦσα Ἰσραὴλ» τοσαύτην πείσεσθαι αὐτοὺς τὴν ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω τροπὴν διδάσκει ὡς τερεβίνθῳ παραβαλέσθαι καὶ οὐδὲ ἀνθούσῃ ταύτῃ, ἀλλὰ ἀποβεβληκυίᾳ τὰ φύλλα. ὃ δὴ σημεῖον ἔσται τοῦ μηδαμῆ μηδαμῶς ὑγρᾶς νοτίδος μετέχειν μηδέ τινα ζωτικὴν ἐπάγεσθαι δύναμιν, πλῆθος δὲ μόνον φέρειν ψυχῶν ἀπεσκληκυιῶν καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καρποῖς τερεβίνθου σκληροτάτοις καὶ ξηροτάτοις παραβαλλομένῳ. τοιαῦτα δ' ἂν ἴδοις τὰ ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος πλήθη τοῦ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους, διὸ εἴρηται· ὡς τερέβινθος ἀποβεβληκυῖα τὰ φύλλα, κατὰ δὲ τὸν Σύμμαχον· ὡς τερέβινθος ἀπορρεύσασα τὰ φύλλα αὐτῆς. γεγόνασι δὲ καὶ ὡς παράδεισος ὕδωρ μὴ ἔχων· εἰ γοῦν τις θεάσαιτο τὰς παρ' αὐτοῖς τῶν θείων γραφῶν ἀπαγγελίας, νομικῶν τε καὶ προφητικῶν ἀναγνώσεις, βίβλους τε ἱστορικῶν καὶ στιχηρῶν λόγων, ὑμνῳδίας τε τρόπους καὶ ψαλμῳδίας, ὄψεται παράδεισον ἀληθῶς καὶ λειμῶνα παντοίων ἀγαθῶν. εἰ δὲ ζητήσειεν παρ' αὐτοῖς τὸν ἔμψυχον καὶ γόνιμον καὶ ζῶντα λόγον, οὗ «ὁ πίνων πηγὴν ἕξει ὕδατος ἁλλομένου εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον», οὐκ ἂν εὕροι. διὸ θεσπίζονται ὡς παράδεισος ὕδωρ μὴ ἔχων. 1.25 Τὴν ἰσχὺν αὐτῶν φησιν ἔσεσθαι ὡς καλάμην οὐ σίτου οὐδέ τινος ἑτέρου τῶν ἀναγκαίων, ἀλλ' ὡς στιππύου καλάμην διὰ τὸ ἀφῃρῆσθαι ἀπ' αὐτῶν «ἰσχύοντα καὶ ἰσχύουσαν, ἰσχὺν ἄρτου καὶ ἰσχὺν ὕδατος, γίγαντα καὶ ἰσχύοντα». διὸ οὐδὲ δύνανται λέγειν τοῖς Χριστοῦ μαθηταῖς ὁμοίως· «πάντα ἰσχύω ἐν τῷ ἐνδυναμοῦντί με Χριστῷ», καί· «τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Χριστοῦ; θλῖψις ἢ στενοχωρία» καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. οὕτω γὰρ γέγονεν αὐτῶν ἡ ἰσχὺς ὡς καλάμη στιππύου, ὡς μὴ μόνον ἀπολέσαι τὴν ἐλευθερίαν, ἐν ᾗ πρότερον ἐκόμων αὐτονομίᾳ καὶ βασιλείᾳ οἰκείᾳ χρώμενοι, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς τυχοῦσιν Ῥωμαίων στρατιωτικοῖς ἀνδράσιν δουλεύειν. καὶ ἐργασίαι αὐτῶν ὡς σπινθῆρες γεγόνασιν, ἐπειδήπερ αἱ πράξεις αὐτῶν αἴτιαι πυρὸς γίγνονται, ἅτε «οὐ χρυσὸν οὔτε ἄργυρον οὔτε λίθους τιμίους, ξύλα δὲ μόνον καὶ χόρτον καὶ καλάμην οἰκοδομούντων». διὸ ἐπιλέγεται τούτοις ἅπασι· καὶ κατακαυθήσονται ἄνομοι καὶ οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἅμα, καὶ οὐκ ἔσται ὁ σβέσων. ὁρᾷς ὅπως πυρπόλησιν καὶ ἐμπρησμὸν αὐτοῖς ἀπειλεῖ ὁ λόγος. καὶ τοῦτο τέλος τῆς παρούσης κατ' αὐτῶν προφητείας· ὃ δὴ καὶ πρὸς λέξιν ἀπέβη παραχρῆμα καὶ οὐκ εἰς μακρὸν μετὰ τὴν κατὰ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν τόλμαν πυρποληθείσης τῆς μητροπόλεως, τῶν τε ἐν αὐτῇ ἀσεβῶν ἐκ τῶν οἰκείων σπινθήρων «τὸ ἄσβεστον πῦρ» τὸ αἰώνιον καὶ «τὴν ἐκ θεοῦ ὀργὴν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ὀργῆς ἑαυτοῖς ταμιευσαμένων». 1.26 Ἀκολούθως μετὰ τὴν κατηγορίαν τοῦ ἐκ περιτομῆς λαοῦ καὶ μετὰ τὴν κατ' αὐτῶν ἐξενεχθεῖσαν ἀπόφασιν ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν κλῆσιν μεταβαίνει τὸ προφητικὸν πνεῦμα θεσπίζον τὴν ἐπὶ τὸν θεὸν ἐπιστροφὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν. εἶθ' ἑξῆς τούτοις καινοῦ νόμου καὶ λόγου μέμνηται καὶ ὄρους καινοῦ καὶ οἴκου θεοῦ, ἐφ' ἃ ἥξειν ποτὲ τὰ ἀλλόφυλά φησιν ἔθνη, τοὺς μὲν πατρῴους καταλιπόντα θεούς, τὸν δὲ θεὸν τῶν προφητῶν τὸν παρ' αὐτοῖς θεὸν Ἰακὼβ χρηματίζοντα γνωσόμενα. σημεῖον δὲ ἐναργέστατον δίδωσιν τοῦ καιροῦ, καθ' ὃν ἤμελλεν ταῦτα ἐπιτελεῖσθαι· τὸ δὲ σημεῖον εἰρήνην ἔσεσθαι τὸ τηνικαῦτα τῶν ἐθνῶν ἁπάντων εὐαγγελίζεται, ὡς μηκέτι τοπαρχίας εἶναι καὶ πολυαρχίας μηδὲ τὰ ἔθνη διαιρεῖσθαι στασιάζοντα πρὸς ἄλληλα μηδὲ τὰς καθ' ἕκαστον ἔθνος πόλεις