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Christ's madness and rage. For so that none of the Jews might disbelieve, truth prepared not some foreigner, but a fellow countryman and co-religionist and zealot to recount those pitiable and indescribable sufferings. For they endured such a divinely-sent capture as all time has not known, since man came to be upon the earth. And rightly so; for as long as they were sinning against their fellow-servants, they obtained forgiveness, but when they sinned against the new master, they were punished without forgiveness. But that Christ did these things to them, hear him again speaking also through a parable, "But those who did not want me to be king over them, bring here and slay them." Wherefore he also said to them, "The kingdom shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation producing its fruits." And to Jerusalem he says, "Days will come 1.397 upon you, and your enemies will cast a rampart about you, and will encircle you, and will press you in on every side, and will dash your children to the ground within you;" but to the disobedient Jews he adds, saying, "Behold, your house is left to you desolate." Which therefore the divine Daniel, foretelling, says, "and the city and the sanctuary he shall destroy with the prince that shall come," that is, the God and Father of all will overthrow the venerable and glorious things of the Jews. but also the Son, Christ, who was expected by them as a redeemer and savior. For he did not say, "the city and the temple will be destroyed with the ruler," as some irrationally suppose, but "the Father will destroy the temple and the city," with the ruler who was treated insolently by them clearly cooperating. concerning whom Jacob says to Bethlehem, "out of you shall come a ruler" and so forth. And indeed he also declared thus to the apostles, "When you see the abomination of desolation standing in a holy place, let the one who reads understand." Which indeed has also been fulfilled, first at the time of the capture and desolation, in the Roman army, which entered the temple and took the city at the time of the desolation, as some have interpreted the aforementioned abomination; for being abominable and detestable according to the law, they are rightly called the abomination of desolation. And then also in the idol of himself which Hadrian the emperor set up and completely desolated the city. Indeed Theodoret says again on Daniel, "sacrifice and libation shall be taken away in the midst of the week, and on the temple the abomination 1.398 of desolation, a consummation shall be given upon the desolation," certain images of Caesar, forbidden by the law, being brought into the temple by Pilate. And so that the Jews might not think they would again receive back the temple and the city and the kingdom, the prophet added, "and until the consummation of time a consummation shall be given upon the desolation." For he says that until the consummation of the world the consummation of the desolation remains, admitting no change. This David also said, "in the wrath of consummation, and they shall not be; and they shall know that God is Lord of Jacob and of the ends of the earth." For concerning this final captivity of the wretched Jews the theological tongue also spoke; for he says, "the cross driving them to the final madness, which they devised against your savior and God, being ignorant of the God in man, and the iron rod threatened to them from afar they drew upon themselves, I mean the now prevailing rule and kingdom, and their final removal and migration, and the yoke of slavery now laid upon them, and the notorious humiliation and dispersion under the Romans, which they both now have and which they will have for a very long time. For I am persuaded by the prophecies concerning them; who will lament worthily of those who know how to write lamentations and to make words equal to sufferings? What books contain these things? One monument of this disaster for them is the whole inhabited world, throughout which they have been scattered, and their worship ceased, and the very ground of Jerusalem scarcely recognizable." Therefore 1.399 Josephus in

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Χριστοῦ μανίαν καὶ λύσσαν. ἵνα γὰρ μηδεὶς τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἀπιστήσῃ, οὐκ ἀλλόφυλόν τινα ἀλλ' ὁμόφυλον καὶ ὁμόπιστον καὶ ζηλωτὴν παρεσκεύασεν ἡ ἀλήθεια τὰ ἐλεεινὰ ἐκεῖνα καὶ δυσεξήγητα ἐκτρα γῳδῆσαι πάθη. τοιαύτην γὰρ θεήλατον ὑπέστησαν ἅλωσιν οἵαν οὐδ' ὁ σύμπας οἶδε χρόνος, ἀφ' οὗ γέγονεν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἄνθρω πος. καὶ εἰκότως· ἕως μὲν γὰρ εἰς τοὺς ὁμοδούλους ἡμάρτανον, συγγνώμης ἐτύγχανον, ἡνίκα δὲ εἰς τὸν καινὸν δεσπότην ἐξήμαρ τον, ἀσυγγνώστως ἐκολάσθησαν. ὅτι δὲ ὁ Χριστὸς αὐτοῖς πε ποίηκε ταῦτα, ἄκουσον αὐτοῦ πάλιν καὶ διὰ παραβολῆς φάσκον τος "τοὺς δὲ μὴ βουληθέντας με βασιλεῦσαι ἐπ' αὐτοὺς ἀγάγετε ὧδε καὶ κατασφάξατε." διὸ καὶ πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἔλεγεν "ἀρθήσε ται ἀφ' ὑμῶν ἡ βασιλεία, καὶ δοθήσεται ἔθνει ποιοῦντι τοὺς καρποὺς αὐτῆς." καὶ πρὸς μὲν τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ φησίν "ἥξουσιν 1.397 ἐπί σε ἡμέραι, καὶ περιβαλοῦσί σοι οἱ ἐχθροί σου χάρακα, καὶ περικυκλώσουσί σε, καὶ συνέξουσί σε πάντοθεν, καὶ ἐδαφιοῦσι τὰ τέκνα σου ἐν σοί·" πρὸς δὲ τοὺς ἀπειθεῖς Ἰουδαίους ἐπάγει λέγων "ἰδοὺ ἀφίεται ὁ οἶκος ὑμῶν ἔρημος." ὅπερ οὖν καὶ ὁ θεῖος ∆ανιὴλ προδηλῶν λέγει "καὶ τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὸ ἅγιον διαφθερεῖ σὺν τῷ ἡγουμένῳ τῷ ἐρχομένῳ" τουτέστιν ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ πάν των Ἰουδαίων τὰ σεμνὰ καὶ περίβλεπτα ἀνατρέψει. ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ υἱὸς ὁ Χριστός, ὁ παρ' αὐτῶν ὡς λυτρωτὴς προσδοκώμενος καὶ σωτήρ. οὐ γὰρ εἶπε "διαφθαρήσεται ἡ πόλις καὶ ὁ ναὸς σὺν τῷ ἡγουμένῳ," καθὼς ἀλόγως οἴονταί τινες, ἀλλὰ "διαφθερεῖ ὁ πατὴρ τὸν ναὸν καὶ τὴν πόλιν," συμπράττοντος δηλονότι καὶ τοῦ παροινηθέντος ὑπ' αὐτῶν ἡγουμένου. περὶ οὗ φησὶν ὁ Ἰακὼβ πρὸς τὴν Βηθλεέμ "ἐκ σοῦ ἐξελεύσεται ἡγούμενος" καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. καὶ μέντοι καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἀποστόλους οὕτω διηγόρευεν "ὅταν ἴδητε τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως ἑστὼς ἐν τόπῳ ἁγίῳ, ὁ ἀναγινώσκων νοείτω." ὃ δὴ καὶ πεπλήρωται, πρῶτον μὲν κατὰ καιρὸν τῆς ἁλώσεως καὶ ἐρημώσεως εἴς τε τὸ Ῥωμαϊκὸν στρατόπεδον, εἰσελ θὸν ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ καὶ τὴν πόλιν ἑλὸν κατὰ τὴν ἐρήμωσιν, ὥς τινες τὸ ῥηθὲν βδέλυγμα οὕτως ἐξειλήφασιν· ἀποτρόπαιοι γὰρ καὶ βδελυκτοὶ κατὰ τὸν νόμον ὑπάρχοντες εἰκότως προείρηνται βδέλυγμα ἐρημώσεως. ἔπειτα δὲ καὶ εἰς ὅπερ ἔστησεν Ἀδριανὸς ὁ βασιλεὺς εἴδωλον αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν πόλιν τέλεον ἠρήμωσεν. ὁ δὴ Θεοδώρητος αὖθίς φησιν εἰς τὸν ∆ανιήλ "ἀρθήσεται θυσία καὶ σπονδὴ ἐν τῷ ἡμίσει τῆς ἑβδομάδος, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ ἱερὸν βδέλυγμα 1.398 ἐρημώσεως, συντέλεια δοθήσεται ἐπὶ τὴν ἐρήμωσιν," εἰκόνες τινὲς τοῦ Καίσαρος, ἀπηγορευμέναι τῷ νόμῳ, εἰς τὸν ναὸν εἰσκο μιζόμεναι παρὰ τοῦ Πιλάτου. καὶ ἵνα μὴ νομίσωσιν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι πάλιν ἀπολήψεσθαι τὸν ναὸν καὶ τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὴν βασιλείαν, ἐπήγαγεν ὁ προφήτης "καὶ ἕως συντελείας καιροῦ συντέλεια δο θήσεται ἐπὶ τὴν ἐρήμωσιν." ἕως γάρ φησι τῆς τοῦ κόσμου συν τελείας ἡ τῆς ἐρημώσεως συντέλεια μένει, μεταβολὴν οὐ δεχο μένη. τοῦτο καὶ ∆αβὶδ ἔφη "ἐν ὀργῇ συντελείας, καὶ οὐ μὴ ὑπάρξωσι· καὶ γνώσονται ὅτι ὁ θεὸς δεσπόζει τοῦ Ἰακὼβ καὶ τῶν περάτων τῆς γῆς." περὶ ταύτης γὰρ τῆς ἐσχάτης αἰχμαλω σίας τῶν ταλαιπώρων Ἰουδαίων καὶ ἡ θεολόγος ἔφη γλῶττα· φησὶ γάρ "τοῦ σταυροῦ πρὸς τὴν ἐσχάτην αὐτοὺς ἐλαύνοντος ἀπόνοιαν, ἣν κατὰ τοῦ σωτῆρος καὶ θεοῦ ὑμῶν ἐπενοήθησαν, τὸν ἐν ἀν θρώπῳ θεὸν ἀγνοήσαντες, καὶ τὴν ῥάβδον τὴν σιδηρᾶν πόρρω θεν ἀπειλουμένην αὐτοῖς ἐφ' ἑαυτοὺς εἵλκυσαν, τὴν νῦν ἐπικρα τοῦσαν ἀρχὴν λέγω καὶ βασιλείαν, καὶ τὴν τελευταίαν αὐτῶν ἀπαγωγὴν καὶ μετανάστασιν, καὶ τὸν νῦν ἐπικείμενον αὐτοῖς τῆς δουλείας ζυγόν, καὶ τὴν περιβόητον ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίοις ταπείνωσιν καὶ διασποράν, ἥν τε νῦν ἔχουσι καὶ ἣν ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἕξουσι. πεί θομαι γὰρ ταῖς περὶ αὐτῶν προρρήσεσι· τίς θρηνήσει πρὸς ἀξίαν τῶν θρήνους γράφειν εἰδότων καὶ λόγους ἐξισοῦν πάθεσι; ποῖαι βίβλοι ταῦτα χωροῦσι; μία στήλη τούτοις τῆς συμφορᾶς ἡ οἰκου μένη πᾶσα, καθ' ἣν ἐσπάρησαν, καὶ ἡ λατρεία πεπαυμένη, καὶ αὐτῆς τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ τὸ ἔδαφος μόλις γινωσκόμενον." ὁ οὖν 1.399 Ἰώσηπος ἐν