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idolatry, as the nations did; and very few were kept as a certain leaven and a portion for God. Therefore, when Christ came, if they had believed in him and worshipped him as God, all were to become one and be saved together, both righteous and unrighteous, god-fearing and idolaters. And if this had happened, the nations would have said to him: "God of all and Master, Lord of the ages, behold, without any works of righteousness you have saved them all. (138) What then? Are we not the works of your hands and your creation?" But the Jews would have contradicted them with what they were indeed saying: "No, but we alone are his portion, we alone are his inheritance; to us belong the tablets of the covenant, the circumcision, and the rest which he promised and has given to us alone, but to you he will by no means give them." To these things the nations would have replied again, not deeming the envious Jews worthy of a word: "Us, O Master and Word of God, you have worthily cast off as unworthy, having left us unattended as stiff-necked and disobedient, and having justly allowed us to suffer from a famine of ignorance and a thirst of waterlessness so that we should not hear your holy words. But to these you have shown all love and care; you have given them prophets and judges and teachers as guides and instructors; you made for them law and circumcision and signs and wonders; and considering all these things as nothing, they abandoned you and with us worshipped idols as gods; and whatever works we performed, they also performed them all; and like us they denied you, the benefactor. But now by faith in you alone you have had compassion on them, you have had mercy and pity, and you have numbered them with your saints who have not sinned. Will you not also have mercy on us? Will you not take pity? Will you not accept us, O lover of mankind?" And so justly and reasonably those in uncircumcision were joined to those in circumcision who sacrificed to idols, and all were to become one in Christ.

But since, along with their former evils, they also killed Christ and God himself as a malefactor, and asked for and released Barabbas as a type of the Antichrist, and after this also persecuted his apostles, having exiled them, as we said, from paradise, he scattered them among all the nations, as having exchanged for the impiety of the nations. (139) But the nations from the side of Adam, he who took the side of Adam from the woman and built it into a perfect man, he, the Son and Word of God by nature, having become entirely flesh through her and being named son of Adam according to the nature of Adam, drew them to himself. This is the wealth of the world; and if this became the wealth of the world, how much more would it have become, if they too had believed. Therefore, from the first dispersion, all Israel was a portion which he foreknew and predestined; and when he came, he called it to faith in himself. But since it was not willing to come to him, having taken from the whole portion a small portion, those who believed in him, namely John the forerunner, the apostles and in order the rest, he rejected the largest part of the portion which by its own intention had fallen into unbelief; and in their place the nations entered and by faith they too were joined to the portion according to the election of faith.

And consider for me from this point the progression of the argument along its way, how it comes to narrate the things of the new and wonderful portion.

7. That the Church of Christ is a new world and faith in him is a new paradise. faith. And in addition to these, a recapitulation of the first world, with the things accomplished in the Church through Christ being set against the things done in that one. And at the end a repetition of the apostolic saying: "Those whom he foreknew, these he also predestined...". (139)

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εἰδωλολατρείαν, καθώς ἐποίουν τά ἔθνη· καί ὀλίγοι λίαν ὡς ζύμη τις καί μερίς τῷ Θεῷ ἐφυλάχθησαν. Ἐλθόντος οὖν τοῦ Χριστοῦ, εἰ ἐπίστευσαν αὐτῶ καί προσεκύνησαν ὡς Θεῷ, ἔμελλον ἅπαντες, δίκαιοί τε καί ἄδικοι, θεοσεβεῖς καί εἰδωλολάτραι, εἰς ἕν γενέσθαι καί ἅμα σωθήσεσθαι. Καί εἰ τοῦτο γέγονεν, ἔλεγον ἄν τά ἔθνη πρός αὐτόν· "Θεέ τοῦ παντός καί ∆έσποτα, Κύριε τῶν αἰώνων, ἰδού χωρίς ἔργων δικαιοσύνης τινῶν πάντας αὐτούς ἔσωσας. (138) Τί οὖν; Ἡμεῖς δέ οὐκ ἐσμέν ἔργα χειρῶν σου καί πλάσμα;" Ἀντέλεγον δέ τούτοις οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι ἅ δή καί ἔλεγον· "Οὐχί, ἀλλ᾿ ἡμεῖς ἐσμεν μόνοι μερίς αὐτοῦ, ἡμεῖς μόνοι κλῆρος αὐτοῦ· πρός ἡμᾶς οἱ πλάκες τῆς διαθήκης, ἡ περιτομή καί τά λοιπά ἅ μόνοις ἡμῖν ἐπηγγείλατο καί ἡμῖν δέδωκεν, ὑμῖν δέ οὐδαμῶς δώσει". Πρός ταῦτα πάλιν ἄν ἀνθυπέφερον τά ἔθνη, λόγου μή ἀξιοῦντα τούς φθονερούς Ἰουδαίους· "Ἡμᾶς μέν, ὦ ∆έσποτα καί Λόγε Θεοῦ, ἀξίως ὡς ἀναξίους ἀπώσω, ὡς σκληροτραχήλους καί ἀνηκόους ἀνεπιμελήτους καταλιπών, καί λιμῷ ἀγνωσίας καί δίψει ἀνυδρίας τοῦ μή ἀκοῦσαι ἡμᾶς λόγων ἁγίων σου ἐάσας καί δικαίως. Εἰς δέ τούτου αὐτούς πᾶσαν ἐπεδείξω ἀγάπην καί ἐπιμέλειαν· προφήτας καί κριτάς καί διδασκάλους ὡς ὁδηγούς καί παιδευτάς δέδωκας αὐτοῖς· νόμον καί περιτομήν καί σημεῖα καί τέρατα ἐποίησας εἰς αὐτούς· καί πάντα ταῦτα εἰς οὐδέν λογισάμενοι, ἐγκατέλιπόν σε καί εἰδώλοις μεθ᾿ ἡμῶν ὡς θεοῖς προσεκύνησαν· καί ἅπερ ἡμεῖς ἐπράξαμεν ἔργα, πάντα καί αὐτοί διεπράξαντο· καί ὁμοίως ἡμῖν ἠρνήσαντό σε τόν εὐεργέτην. Νυνί δέ μόνῃ τῇ εἰς σέ πίστει συνεπάθησας αὐτοῖς, ἠλέησας καί ᾠκτείρησας καί τοῖς μή ἁμαρτήσασιν ἁγίοις σου συνηρίθμησας. Οὐκ ἐλεήσεις δέ καί ἡμᾶς; Οὐκ οἰκτειρήσεις; Οὐ προσδέξῃ, φιλάνθρωπε;" Καί οὕτως δικαίως καί εὐλόγως τοῖς ἐν περιτομῇ εἰδώλοις θύσασιν οἱ ἐν ἀκροβυστίᾳ συνήπτοντο καί οἱ πάντες εἰς ἕν ἐν Χριστῷ γενήσεσθαι ἔμελλον.

Ἐπεί δέ μετά τῶν προγενεστέρων αὐτῶν κακῶν καί αὐτόν τόν Χριστόν καί Θεόν ὡς κακουργόν ἀπέκτειναν, τόν δέ Βαραββᾶν ὡς ἀντίτυπον τοῦ Ἀντιχρίστου ᾐτήσαντο καί ἀπέλυσαν καί μετά ταῦτα καί αὐτούς ἐδίωξαν τούς ἀποστόλους αὐτοῦ, ἐξορίσας αὐτούς, ὥσπερ εἴπομεν, ἐκ τοῦ παραδείσου, διέσπειρεν εἰς πάντα τά ἔθνη, ὡς τήν τῶν ἐθνῶν ἀνταλλαξαμένους ἀσέβειαν. (139) Τά δέ γε ἔθνη ἐκ τῆς πλευρᾶς τοῦ Ἀδάμ ὁ τήν πλευράν ἀναλαβών τοῦ Ἀδάμ ἐκ τῆς γυναικός καί εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον οἰκοδομήσας αὐτήν, σάρξ αὐτός ὅλος ὁ φύσει Υἱός καί Λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ δι᾿ αὐτῆς γεγονώς καί υἱός τοῦ Ἀδάμ κατά τήν φύσιν τοῦ Ἀδάμ χρηματίσας, πρός ἑαυτόν ἐπεσπάσατο. Τοῦτο ὁ πλοῦτος τοῦ κόσμου· καί εἰ τοῦτο γέγονε πλοῦτος κόσμου, πόσῳ μᾶλλον, εἰ κἀκεῖνοι ἐπίστευσαν, γενήσεσθαι ἔμελλον. Ἦν μέν οὖν ἐκ τῆς πρώτης διασπορᾶς μερίς ὁ πᾶς Ἰσραήλ ὅν προέγνω καί προώρισε· καί ὅτε ἦλθεν ἐκάλεσεν αὐτόν εἰς πίστιν τήν ἑαυτοῦ. Ἐπεί δέ ἐλθεῖν πρός αὐτόν οὐκ ἠθέλησε, λαβών ἐκ τῆς ὅλης μερίδος μερίδα μικράν τούς εἰς αὐτόν πιστεύσαντας, δηλονότι τόν Ἰωάννην τόν πρόδρομον, τούς ἀποστόλους καί καθεξῆς τούς λοιπούς, τό πλεῖστον τῆς μερίδος τό ἐκ προθέσεως οἰκείας εἰς ἀπιστίαν πεσόν ἀπέρριψε· καί ἀντ᾿ αὐτῶν εἰσῆλθον τά ἔθνη καί τῇ κατ᾿ ἐκλογήν πίστεως μερίδι ἐκ πίστεως καί αὐτοί ἐκολλήθησαν.

Καί σκόπει μοι ἀπ᾿ ἐντεῦθεν τήν τοῦ λόγου καθ᾿ ὁδόν προκοπήν, ὅπως ἔρχεται τά τῆς καινῆς καί θαυμασίας μερίδος ἐκδιηγήσασθαι.

ζ΄. Ὅτι νέος κόσμος ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ Ἐκκλησία καί νέος παράδεισος ἡ πρός αὐτόν

πίστις. Καί πρός τούτοις ἀνακεφαλαίωσις τοῦ πρώτου κόσμου, ἀντιπαρατιθεμένων τοῖς ἐν ἐκείνῳ πραχθεῖσι τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ διά Χριστοῦ τελεσθέντων. Καί πρός τό τέλος ἐπανάληψις τοῦ ἀποστολικοῦ ῥητοῦ· "Οὕς προέγνω, τούτους καί προώρισε…..". (139)