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will not continue in all the things that are written in the law, to do them.” 1.3.40 For was it then necessary for those from the ends of the earth who were going to worship God according to Moses, so that they might flee the curse, and obtain the blessing promised to Abraham, to do all these things and to go up to Jerusalem three times a year, and for the women from all the nations who had chosen to worship God, having just ceased from childbirth and labor pains, to undertake so great a journey, so that they might offer the sacrifice prescribed by Moses for each one born, or for those who had touched a dead body, or those who had sworn a false oath, or those who had done something unintentionally, to come from the ends of the earth, to run and hasten for the prescribed purification, so that they might escape the infliction of the curse? 1.3.41 But you see how even for those dwelling around Jerusalem and making their sojourns in Judea alone the life according to Moses was difficult to achieve, let alone possible to be fulfilled also by the other nations. Hence, reasonably, our savior and lord Jesus the son of God, after the resurrection from the dead, saying to his disciples: “Go and make disciples of all the nations,” he adds: “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” 1.3.42 For he did not command them to teach all the nations the laws of Moses, but what he himself commanded; and these were the things contained in his gospels. Reasonably, therefore, both his disciples and apostles, in the discussion concerning the gentiles, confess that the laws of Moses cannot be applied to the gentiles, since they had been difficult to achieve for both them and their fathers. And so Peter says in the Acts: “Now therefore why do you test God by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear”? 1.3.43 And reasonably, Moses himself, on account of these very things, said that another prophet besides himself would be raised up, and announces the good news that this one would be the lawgiver of all the nations, alluding to Christ, and he advises his own people to obey him, ordaining this also in some such way: “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers, you shall listen to him in all things that he will say to you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet will be destroyed from her people.” 1.3.44 And that this prophet, clearly the Christ, having come forth from the Jews, would rule over all the nations, he again proclaims, saying: “How beautiful are your houses, Jacob, your tents, Israel, like shady groves and like a paradise by a river, like tents which the Lord has pitched. A man shall come forth from his seed, and he will rule over many nations, and his kingdom will be exalted.” 1.3.45 But also from which tribe, there being twelve in all among the Hebrews, that indeed from Judah the prophesied lawgiver of the nations, Christ, would come forth, and at what times, that it would be after the failure of the rulers of the Jewish nation from ancestral succession, he makes clear, saying: “A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until the things stored up for him come, and he is the expectation of the nations.” 1.3.46 And what was the expectation other than the one promised to Abraham concerning the necessity that “in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed”? Therefore Moses himself has been shown to know precisely that the legislation ordained by him was weak for applying to all the nations, and that for the fulfillment of the oracles to Abraham there was need of another prophet. 1.3.47 This, then, was he, whom he proclaimed would come from the tribe of Judah and would rule over many nations, bearing witness to the good news beforehand. 1.4.1 On account of these things, therefore, as they contain the ordinances concerning us, the gentiles, the sacred books among the Hebrews, since they are also our own, we have both chosen and cherished, especially since not only did Moses proclaim beforehand concerning the lawgiver of the nations who would come after him, but also the prophets after him collectively

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οὐκ ἐμμενεῖ ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἐγγεγραμμένοις τοῦ νόμου, τοῦ ποιῆσαι αὐτά». 1.3.40 Ἆρα γὰρ τοὺς ἐκ περάτων γῆς μέλλοντας κατὰ Μωσέα θεοσεβεῖν, ὡς ἂν φύγοιεν μὲν τὴν κατάραν, τύχοιεν δὲ τῆς ἐπηγγελμένης πρὸς τὸν Ἀβραὰμ εὐλογίας, ταῦτα πάντα χρῆν πράττειν καὶ τρὶς τοῦ ἔτους ἀπαντᾶν εἰς τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα, καὶ τὰς ἐκ πάντων δὲ τῶν ἐθνῶν θεοσεβεῖν προῃρημένας γυναῖκας, ἄρτι τόκων καὶ ὠδίνων παυσαμένας, τοσαύτην στέλλεσθαι πορείαν, ὡς ἂν τὴν προστεταγμένην ὑπὸ Μωσέως θυσίαν ἐφ' ἑκάστῳ τῶν γεννωμένων ἀνενέγκαιεν, ἢ τοὺς ἐφαψαμένους νεκροῦ σώματος, ἢ τοὺς ἐπίορκον ὀμωμοκότας, ἢ τοὺς ἀκούσιόν τι δεδρακότας, ἐκ περάτων γῆς ἥκειν τρέχειν τε καὶ σπεύδειν ἐπὶ τὸν νενομοθετημένον καθαρισμόν, ὡς ἂν ἐκφύγοιεν τὴν τῆς κατάρας ἐπίσκηψιν; 1.3.41 ἀλλὰ συνορᾷς ὡς καὶ αὐτοῖς τοῖς ἀμφὶ τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα κατοικοῦσι καὶ ἐπὶ μόνης τῆς Ἰουδαίας τὰς διατριβὰς ποιουμένοις ὁ κατὰ Μωσέα βίος δυσκατόρθωτος ἦν, μή τί γε δυνατὸς ἐπιτελεῖσθαι καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς ἔθνεσιν. Ἔνθεν εἰκότως ὁ σωτὴρ καὶ κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ μετὰ τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀνάστασιν τοῖς αὐτοῦ μαθηταῖς εἰπών· «πορευθέντες μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη», ἐπιλέγει· «διδάσκοντες αὐτοὺς τηρεῖν πάντα ὅσα ἐνετειλάμην ὑμῖν». 1.3.42 οὐ γὰρ τὰ Μωσέως νόμιμα διδάσκειν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη παρεκελεύσατο, ἀλλ' ὅσα αὐτὸς ἐνετείλατο· ταῦτα δ' ἦν τὰ ἐν τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις αὐτοῦ φερόμενα. εἰκότως οὖν καὶ οἱ αὐτοῦ μαθηταὶ καὶ οἱ ἀπόστολοι ἐν τῇ περὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν σκέψει ὁμολογοῦσι μὴ δύνασθαι τὰ Μωσέως νόμιμα τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἐφαρμόζειν, ὅτε μήτε αὐτοῖς μήτε τοῖς πατράσιν αὐτῶν εὐκατόρθωτα γέγονεν. λέγει δ' οὖν ἐν ταῖς Πράξεσιν ὁ Πέτρος· «νῦν οὖν τί πειράζετε τὸν θεὸν ἐπιθεῖναι ζυγὸν ἐπὶ τὸν τράχηλον τῶν μαθητῶν, ὃν οὔτε οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν οὔτε ἡμεῖς ἰσχύσαμεν βαστάσαι»; 1.3.43 Εἰκότως δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Μωσῆς τούτων αὐτῶν ἕνεκεν ἕτερον παρ' ἑαυτὸν ἀναστήσεσθαι ἔφη προφήτην, καὶ τοῦτον νομοθέτην ἔσεσθαι τῶν ἐθνῶν ἁπάντων εὐαγγελίζεται, τὸν Χριστὸν αἰνιττόμενος, αὐτῷ τε πείθεσθαι τοῖς οἰκείοις παραινεῖ, ὧδέ πη καὶ τοῦτο θεσπίζων· «προφήτην ὑμῖν ἀναστήσει κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἐκ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ὑμῶν ὡς ἐμέ, αὐτοῦ ἀκούσεσθε κατὰ πάντα ὅσα ἂν λαλήσῃ ὑμῖν. ἔσται δέ, πᾶσα ψυχή, ἥτις ἂν μὴ ἀκούσῃ τοῦ προφήτου ἐκείνου, ἐξο λοθρευθήσεται ἐκ τοῦ γένους αὐτῆς». 1.3.44 καὶ τοῦτον δὲ τὸν προφήτην, δηλονότι τὸν Χριστόν, ἐξ Ἰουδαίων προελθόντα πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν κατακρατήσειν πάλιν ἀναφωνεῖ λέγων· «ὡς καλοὶ οἱ οἶκοί σου Ἰακώβ, αἱ σκηναί σου Ἰσραήλ, ὡσεὶ νάπαι σκιάζουσαι καὶ ὡσεὶ παράδεισος ἐπὶ ποταμόν, ὡς σκηναὶ ἃς ἔπηξεν κύριος. ἐξελεύσεται ἄνθρωπος ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτοῦ, καὶ κυριεύσει ἐθνῶν πολλῶν, καὶ ὑψωθήσεται ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ». 1.3.45 ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐξ ὁποίας φυλῆς, δώδεκα τῶν ὅλων παρ' Ἑβραίοις οὐσῶν, ὅτι δὴ ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰούδα ὁ θεσπιζόμενος τῶν ἐθνῶν νομοθέτης Χριστὸς προελεύσεται, καὶ κατὰ ποίους χρόνους, ὅτι μετὰ τὴν ἔκλειψιν τῶν ἐκ προγόνων διαδοχῆς τοῦ Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους ἀρξάντων, δηλοῖ λέγων· «οὐκ ἐκλείψει ἄρχων ἐξ Ἰούδα, καὶ ἡγούμενος ἐκ τῶν μηρῶν αὐτοῦ, ἕως ἂν ἔλθῃ τὰ ἀποκείμενα αὐτῷ, καὶ αὐτὸς προσδοκία ἐθνῶν». 1.3.46 Ποία δὲ προσδοκία ἦν ἀλλ' ἢ ἡ τῷ Ἀβραὰμ ἐπηγγελμένη περὶ τοῦ δεῖν «εὐλογηθήσεσθαι ἐν αὐτῷ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη τῆς γῆς»; πέφηνε τοιγαροῦν καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Μωσῆς ἀκριβῶς ἐπιστάμενος τὴν μὲν πρὸς αὐτοῦ διαταγεῖσαν νομοθεσίαν ἐξασθενεῖν εἰς τὸ πᾶσιν ἐφαρμόσαι τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, εἰς ἐκπλήρωσιν δὲ τῶν πρὸς τὸν Ἀβραὰμ χρησμῶν ἑτέρου δεῖσθαι προφήτου. 1.3.47 οὗτος δ' ἄρα ἦν, ὃν ἐξ Ἰούδα φυλῆς προελεύσεσθαι καὶ πολλῶν ἐθνῶν κυριεύσειν προμαρτυρόμενος εὐηγγελίζετο. 1.4.1 ∆ιὰ δὴ οὖν ταῦτα, ὡς ἂν τὰ περὶ ἡμῶν τῶν ἐθνῶν θεσπίσματα περιεχούσας, τὰς παρ' Ἑβραίοις ἱερὰς βίβλους, ἅτε καὶ ἡμῶν οἰκείας οὔσας, εἱλάμεθά τε καὶ ἐστέρξαμεν, ὅτε μάλιστα οὐ μόνον Μωσῆς περὶ τοῦ μετ' αὐτὸν ἥξοντος νομοθέτου τῶν ἐθνῶν προανεφώνει, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ μετ' αὐτὸν προφῆται συλλήβδην