John Chrysostom, Against the Jews

For if the things of the Jews are venerable and great, ours are false; but if these things are true, as indeed they are true, those things are full of deceit. I do not mean the Scriptures; may it never be! for they led me by the hand to Christ; but their impiety and their present madness. But it is now time to show that demons dwell there, not only in that place itself, but also in the very souls of the Jews. For when, he says, the unclean spirit has gone out, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest; and if it finds none, it says, I will return to my house; and when it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order; and it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they enter into it, and the last state of that man will be worse than the first. So will it be also with this generation. Do you see that demons dwell in their souls, and the present ones are more grievous than the former? And very reasonably so. For then they acted impiously against the prophets, but now they insult the very Master of the prophets. Do you then, tell me, assemble in the same place with men who are demon-possessed, who have so many unclean spirits, who have been brought up in slaughter and murders, and do you not shudder? For must one share a greeting with these men, and impart a mere word, and not turn away from them as a common bane and disease of the whole world? Have they not run through every form of wickedness? Have not all the prophets spent their many and long discourses on accusations against them? What tragedy, what manner of lawlessness have they not overshadowed by their own blood-guiltiness? they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons; they ignored nature, forgot the pains of childbirth, trampled on the rearing of children, overturned the laws of kinship from their very foundations, they have become more savage than all wild beasts. For 48.853 wild beasts often even give up their lives, and despise their own safety, so as to defend their offspring; but these men, with no compulsion, slaughtered with their own hands those born of them, that they might serve the enemies of our life, the avenging demons. At which of their deeds should one be amazed first, their impiety or their cruelty, and their inhumanity? that they sacrificed their sons, or that they sacrificed them to demons? But for the sake of licentiousness, have they not also outdone the most lustful of irrational animals? Listen to the prophet, what he says about their licentiousness; They became like lust-crazed horses; each one neighed after his neighbor’s wife. He did not say, each one desired his neighbor's wife, but most emphatically by the sound of irrational animals he revealed the madness engendered in them by licentiousness.

ζʹ. What else do you want me to say? Their rapine, their covetousness, their betrayals of the poor, their thefts, their huckstering? But not even the whole day will suffice for this narrative. But do their feasts have something venerable and great? Indeed, they have shown these very things to be unclean. Listen, at any rate, to the prophets, or rather, listen to God, with what great excess he turns away from them; I have hated, I have rejected your feasts. God hates them, and you take part in them? And he did not say, this or that feast, but all of them together. Do you wish to see that he also hates the worship with timbrels and lyres and harps and other instruments? Take away from me the sound of your songs, he says, and I will not listen to the melody of your instruments. God says, Take them away from me; and you run to hear the trumpets? But are not these sacrifices and offerings abominable? If you bring me fine flour, it is in vain; incense is an abomination to me. Incense is an abomination, and is the place not an abomination? And when was it an abomination? Before they committed the chief of evils, before they killed their own Master, before the cross, before the deicide, it was an abomination; and is it not now much more so? And yet what is more fragrant than incense? But God, paying attention not to the nature of the gifts but to the disposition of those who offer them, so judges the offerings. He had regard for Abel, and then for his gifts; he saw the

Εἰ γὰρ σεμνὰ καὶ μεγάλα τὰ Ἰουδαίων, ψευδῆ τὰ ἡμέτερα· εἰ δὲ ταῦτα ἀληθῆ, ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ ἀληθῆ, ἐκεῖνα ἀπάτης γέμει. Οὐχὶ τὰς Γραφὰς λέγω· μὴ γένοιτο! ἐκεῖναι γάρ με πρὸς τὸν Χριστὸν ἐχειραγώγησαν· ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀσέβειαν αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν μανίαν τὴν νῦν. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ ὥρα λοιπὸν δεῖξαι, ὅτι καὶ δαίμονες ἐκεῖ κατοικοῦσιν, οὐχὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ τόπῳ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν αὐταῖς ταῖς ψυχαῖς τῶν Ἰουδαίων. Ὅταν γὰρ ἐξέλθῃ, φησὶ, τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἀκάθαρτον, πορεύεται δι' ἀνύδρων τόπων, ζητοῦν ἀνάπαυσιν· κἂν μὴ εὕρῃ, φησὶν, ὑποστρέψω εἰς τὸν οἶκόν μου· καὶ ἐλθὸν εὑρίσκει σχολάζοντα, σεσαρωμένον καὶ κεκοσμημένον· καὶ πορεύεται, καὶ παραλαμβάνει μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ ἑπτὰ ἕτερα πνεύματα πονηρότερα ἑαυτοῦ, καὶ εἰσέρχεται εἰς αὐτὸν, καὶ ἔσται τὰ ἔσχατα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐκείνου χείρονα τῶν πρώτων. Οὕτως ἔσται καὶ τῇ γενεᾷ ταύτῃ. Ὁρᾷς ὅτι δαίμονες ἐνοικοῦσιν αὐτῶν ταῖς ψυχαῖς, καὶ χαλεπώτεροι τῶν προτέρων οἱ νῦν; καὶ μάλα εἰκότως. Τότε μὲν γὰρ εἰς τοὺς προφήτας ἠσέβουν, νῦν δὲ εἰς αὐτὸν τῶν προφητῶν τὸν ∆εσπότην ὑβρίζουσιν. Ἀνθρώποις οὖν, εἰπέ μοι, δαιμονῶσι, καὶ τοσαῦτα ἔχουσι πνεύματα ἀκάθαρτα, ἐν σφαγαῖς καὶ φόνοις ἀνατραφεῖσιν, εἰς ταυτὸ συνέρχεσθε, καὶ οὐ φρίττετε; Προσρήσεως γὰρ δεῖ κοινωνεῖν τούτοις, καὶ λόγου μεταδιδόναι ψιλοῦ, ἀλλ' οὐχ ὡς κοινὴν λύμην καὶ νόσον τῆς οἰκουμένης ἁπάσης ἀποστρέφεσθαι; Οὐχὶ πᾶν εἶδος ἐπῆλθον κακίας; οὐχὶ τοὺς πολλοὺς καὶ μακροὺς λόγους οἱ προφῆται πάντες εἰς τὰς τούτων κατηγορίας ἀνήλωσαν; Ποίαν τραγῳδίαν, τίνα παρανομίας τρόπον οὐκ ἀπέκρυψαν ταῖς ἑαυτῶν μιαιφονίαις; ἔθυσαν τοὺς υἱοὺς αὐτῶν καὶ τὰς θυγατέρας αὐτῶν τοῖς δαιμονίοις· τὴν φύσιν ἠγνόησαν, ὠδίνων ἐπελάθοντο, παιδοτροφίαν κατεπάτησαν, τῆς συγγενείας τοὺς νόμους ἐξ αὐτῶν τῶν βάθρων ἀνέτρεψαν, θηρίων ἁπάντων γεγόνασιν ἀγριώτεροι. Τὰ 48.853 θηρία μὲν γὰρ καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἐπιδίδωσι πολλάκις, καὶ τῆς οἰκείας καταφρονεῖ σωτηρίας, ὥστε ὑπερασπίσαι τῶν ἐκγόνων· οὗτοι δὲ οὐδεμιᾶς ἀνάγκης οὔσης τοὺς ἐξ αὐτῶν φύντας ταῖς οἰκείαις κατέσφαξαν χερσὶν, ἵνα τοὺς ἐχθροὺς τῆς ἡμετέρας ζωῆς, τοὺς ἀλάστορας θεραπεύσωσι δαίμονας. Τί ἄν τις αὐτῶν ἐκπλαγείη πρότερον, τὴν ἀσέβειαν ἢ τὴν ὠμότητα, καὶ τὴν ἀπανθρωπίαν; ὅτι τοὺς υἱοὺς ἔθυσαν, ἢ ὅτι τοῖς δαιμονίοις ἔθυσαν; Ἀλλὰ ἀσελγείας ἕνεκεν οὐχὶ καὶ τὰ λαγνότατα τῶν ἀλόγων ἀπέκρυψαν; Ἄκουσον τοῦ προφήτου, τί φησι περὶ τῆς ἀκολασίας αὐτῶν· Ἵπποι θηλυμανεῖς ἐγένοντο· ἕκαστος ἐπὶ τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ πλησίον αὐτοῦ ἐχρεμέτιζεν. Οὐκ εἶπεν, ἕκαστος τῆς γυναικὸς τοῦ πλησίον ἐπεθύμει, ἀλλ' ἐμφαντικώτατα τῇ τῶν ἀλόγων φωνῇ τὴν ἐκ τῆς ἀσελγείας ἐγγινομένην αὐτοῖς μανίαν ἐνέφηνεν.

ζʹ. Τί βούλεσθε ἕτερον εἴπω; τὰς ἁρπαγὰς, τὰς πλεονεξίας, τὰς τῶν πενήτων προδοσίας, τὰς κλοπὰς, τὰς καπηλείας; Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ πᾶσα ἡμῖν πρὸς ταύτην ἀρκέσει τὴν διήγησιν ἡ ἡμέρα. Ἀλλ' αἱ ἑορταὶ αὐτῶν σεμνὸν ἔχουσί τι καὶ μέγα; Καὶ αὐτὰς μὲν οὖν ταύτας ἀκαθάρτους ἀπέδειξαν. Ἄκουσον γοῦν τῶν προφητῶν, μᾶλλον δὲ ἄκουσον τοῦ Θεοῦ, μεθ' ὅσης αὐτὰς ἀποστρέφεται τῆς ὑπερβολῆς· Μεμίσηκα, ἀπῶσμαι τὰς ἑορτὰς ὑμῶν. Ὁ Θεὸς μισεῖ, καὶ σὺ κοινωνεῖς; Καὶ οὐκ εἶπε, τήνδε ἢ τήνδε τὴν ἑορτὴν, ἀλλὰ πάσας ὁμοῦ. Βούλει ἰδεῖν, ὅτι καὶ τὴν διὰ τυμπάνων καὶ τῆς κιθάρας καὶ τῶν ψαλτηρίων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὀργάνων λατρείαν μισεῖ; Μετάστησον ἀπ' ἐμοῦ ἦχον ᾠδῶν σου, φησὶ, καὶ ψαλμὸν ὀργάνων σου οὐκ ἀκούσομαι. Ὁ Θεὸς λέγει, Μετάστησον ἀπ' ἐμοῦ· καὶ σὺ τρέχεις ἀκουσόμενος τῶν σαλπίγγων; Ἀλλ' αὗται αἱ θυσίαι καὶ αἱ προσφοραὶ οὐχὶ βδελυκταί; Ἐὰν φέρητέ μοι σεμίδαλιν, μάταιον· θυμίαμα βδέλυγμά μοί ἐστι. Θυμίαμα βδέλυγμα, καὶ ὁ τόπος οὐ βδέλυγμα; Καὶ πότε δὲ βδέλυγμα; Πρὶν ἢ τὸ κεφάλαιον αὐτοὺς ἐργάσασθαι τῶν κακῶν, πρὶν ἢ τὸν ἑαυτῶν ἀνελεῖν ∆εσπότην, πρὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ, πρὸ τῆς Χριστοκτονίας τὸ βδέλυγμα· καὶ νῦν οὐ πολλῷ μᾶλλον; Καίτοι τί θυμιάματος εὐωδέστερον; Ἀλλ' οὐ τῇ φύσει τῶν δώρων, ἀλλὰ τῇ προαιρέσει τῶν προσαγόντων προσέχων ὁ Θεὸς, οὕτω κρίνει τὰς προσφοράς. Προσέσχεν ἐπὶ Ἄβελ, καὶ τότε ἐπὶ τοῖς δώροις αὐτοῦ· εἶδε τὸν