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we have shown were proclaimed through the divine scriptures. But for the present one, no prophet set a time, but that it would come and lay everything waste and change the government, and after how much time from the return from Babylon it would happen, Daniel foretold, but that it would have an end and these evils would cease somewhere, neither he nor any other prophet revealed, but on the contrary, as has been said, they foretold that this misery would hold them until the end of time. And very rightly so; for such a long time having passed testifies to what has been said, showing neither a trace nor a beginning of a favorable change, and this, though they often attempted to rebuild the temple, under Hadrian and Constantine and Julian, and were prevented first by soldiers, and later, under the apostate, by fire leaping from the foundations and restraining them from their untimely contentiousness and transgression. 1.410 Therefore, then, let them tell us, for what reason, after spending so much time in hardship in Egypt, they received mercy, and having been carried away again to Babylon, they returned to their own lands, and having suffered so many evils under Antiochus, they returned again to their former dignity, but now nothing of the sort has happened, but with five hundred years, and now a thousand, having passed since then, we do not see even a hint of such a change appearing as before. But if they should bring forward their sins, and say, "Because we have sinned against God, for this reason we do not receive our own land," I would again rightly ask them: Is it because of your sins, O Jews, that you dwell outside Jerusalem for so long? And what is new and strange about that? For do you live in sins only now, but from the beginning in righteousness and good deeds? Were you not brought up with transgressions from the beginning and from of old? When the sea was parted and the rocks were split and so many wonders were performed in the desert, did you not worship a calf? Did you not often try to kill Moses by stoning him and in countless other ways, and did you not provoke God to anger by blaspheming? Were you not initiated into the rites of Baal-peor? Did you not sacrifice your sons and your daughters to demons and serve foreign gods? Did you not display every form of sin and wickedness? How then did God not turn away from you at that time, but after the child-murders and the idolatries, after much ingratitude, He allowed various prophets to be among you, and they worked signs and 1.411 extraordinary wonders? For what reason then, when in the past you were impious and committed countless terrible things, did you enjoy so much favor from God, and protection, and providence, but now, when you are neither practicing idolatry nor committing child-murder, you live in captivity and misery? For was there one God then and another now? Is it not the same one who administered those things then and works these things now? Why, when your sins were greater, did you have great glory from God, but now when you sin less, has He completely turned away from you and delivered you to endless dishonor? But even if you are silent, the stones will cry out. For since you stretched out your hands against the Master, for this reason there will be no correction for you, nor pardon henceforth, nor defense. For then your daring deeds were against servants, but now you have clearly eclipsed all those old deeds by your madness against Christ, the common Master. Therefore you are punished more severely, and even so you do not refrain from your ancestral folly and rage, calling him a deceiver and a lawbreaker. If, then, Christ was a deceiver, as you say, and a lawbreaker, you ought rather to have been held in esteem, because you killed him. For if Phinehas, by slaying one transgressor, stopped the entire wrath against the nation (for Phinehas stood up and made atonement, and the plague was stayed, and it was counted to him for righteousness), much more should this have happened in your case, if indeed he who was crucified by you was a lawbreaker.

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ρυχθέντας διὰ τῶν θείων γραφῶν ἀπεδείξαμεν. τῇ παρούσῃ δὲ οὐδεὶς προφήτης ὥρισε χρόνον, ἀλλ' ὅτι μὲν ἥξει καὶ ἐρημώσει πάντα καὶ μεταστήσει τὴν πολιτείαν, καὶ μετὰ πόσον χρόνον τῆς ἐκ Βαβυλῶνος ἐπανόδου συμβήσεται, προεῖπεν ὁ ∆ανιήλ, ὅτι δὲ τέλος ἕξει καὶ στήσεταί που τὰ κακὰ ταῦτα, οὔτ' ἐκεῖνος ἐδήλω σεν οὔτ' ἄλλος τις προφήτης, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὐναντίον, ὡς εἴρηται, προεῖπον ὅτι ἕως συντελείας καθέξει αὐτοὺς ἡ ταλαιπωρία αὕτη. καὶ μάλα εἰκότως· καὶ γὰρ μαρτυρεῖ τοῖς εἰρημένοις ὁ τοσοῦτος διαγενόμενος χρόνος καὶ οὔτε ἴχνος οὔτε προοίμιον χρηστῆς μετα βολῆς ἐνδειξάμενος, καὶ ταῦτα πολλάκις ἐπιχειρησάντων αὐτῶν ἀναστῆσαι τὸν ναόν, ἐπὶ Ἀδριανοῦ καὶ Κωνσταντίνου καὶ Ἰουλιανοῦ, καὶ διακωλυθέντων πρῶτον μὲν ὑπὸ στρατιωτῶν, ὕστερον δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ παραβάτου πυρὸς τῶν θεμελίων ἐκπηδήσαντος καὶ κατασχόντος αὐτοὺς τῆς ἀκαίρου φιλονεικίας τε καὶ παραβάσεως. 1.410 ὅθεν τοίνυν λεγέτωσαν ἡμῖν, τίνος ἕνεκα ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ μὲν τοσοῦτον διατρίψαντες χρόνον ἐν κακουχίᾳ ἐλέους ἔτυχον, καὶ εἰς Βαβυ λῶνα πάλιν ἀπενεχθέντες ἐπανῆλθον εἰς τὰ ἴδια, καὶ ὑπ' Ἀντιό χου τοσαῦτα κακὰ παθόντες αὖθις πρὸς τὸ πρότερον ἐπανῆλθον ἀξίωμα, νῦν δὲ οὐδὲν τοιοῦτον γεγένηται, ἀλλὰ πεντακοσίων ἐτῶν, νῦν δὲ χιλίων ἐξ ἐκείνου διελθόντων οὐδὲ αἴνιγμα τοιαύτης μετα βολῆς ὁρῶμεν φαινόμενον οἷον τὸ πρότερον. εἰ δὲ τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν προβάλοιντο, καὶ εἴποιεν, ἐπεὶ ἡμάρτομεν τῷ θεῷ, διὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἀπολαμβάνομεν τὴν οἰκείαν χώραν, πάλιν δ' ἂν εἰκό τως αὐτοὺς ἐρήσομαι· διὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας ὑμῶν, ὦ Ἰουδαῖοι, ἔξω τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ διατρίβετε χρόνον τοσοῦτον; καὶ τί τὸ καινὸν καὶ παράδοξον; μὴ γὰρ νῦν ἐν ἁμαρτίαις ζῆτε μόνον, παρὰ δὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ κατορθώμασιν; οὐκ ἄνωθεν καὶ ἐξ ἀρχῆς συνανετράφητε παρανομίαις; οὐχὶ τῆς θαλάσσης σχιζομέ νης καὶ τῶν πετρῶν ῥηγνυμένων καὶ τοσούτων θαυμάτων γινομέ νων περὶ τῆς ἐρήμου προσεκυνήσατε μόσχῳ; οὐ τὸν Μωϋσέα λί θοις βάλλοντες καὶ ἑτέροις μυρίοις τρόποις ἀνελεῖν ἐπεχειρήσατε πολλάκις, καὶ τὸν θεὸν παρωργίζετε βλασφημοῦντες; οὐ τῷ Βεελφεγὼρ ἐτελέσθητε; οὐ τοὺς υἱοὺς ὑμῶν καὶ τὰς θυγατέρας ἐθύσατε τοῖς δαιμονίοις καὶ τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους θεοὺς ἐθεραπεύσατε; οὐ πᾶν εἶδος ἁμαρτίας καὶ κακίας ἐπεδείξασθε; πῶς οὖν ὑμᾶς οὐκ ἀπεστράφη τότε ὁ θεός, ἀλλὰ μετὰ τὰς παιδοκτονίας καὶ τὰς εἰδωλολατρίας, μετὰ τὴν πολλὴν ἀγνωμοσύνην, καὶ προφήτας ἀφῆκε παρ' ὑμῖν εἶναι διαφόρους, καὶ σημεῖα εἰργάζοντο καὶ θαύ 1.411 ματα παράδοξα; τίνος οὖν ἕνεκεν πάλαι μὲν ἀσεβοῦντες καὶ μυρία διαπραττόμενοι δεινὰ τοσαύτης εὐνοίας ἀπηλαύσατε παρὰ θεοῦ καὶ προστασίας καὶ προμηθείας, νῦν δὲ οὔτε εἰδωλολατροῦντες οὔτε παιδοκτονοῦντες ἐν αἰχμαλωσίᾳ καὶ ταλαιπωρίᾳ διάγετε; μὴ γὰρ ἕτερος ἦν θεὸς τότε καὶ ἕτερος νῦν; οὐκ αὐτός ἐστι καὶ ὁ ἐκεῖνα οἰκονομῶν καὶ ταῦτα νῦν ἐργαζόμενος; διὰ τί, ὅτε μείζω μὲν ἦν τὰ ἁμαρτήματα, πολλὴ δόξα ὑμῖν ἦν παρὰ θεοῦ, ὅτε δὲ ἐλάττονα πλημμελεῖτε νῦν, παντελῶς ὑμᾶς ἀπεστράφη καὶ ἀτιμίᾳ παρέδωκεν ἀπεράντῳ; ἀλλὰ κἂν ὑμεῖς σιγήσητε, οἱ λίθοι κεκρά ξονται. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ κατὰ τοῦ δεσπότου τὰς χεῖρας ἐξετείνατε, διὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἔσται ὑμῖν διόρθωσις οὐδὲ συγγνώμη λοιπὸν οὐδὲ ἀπολογία. τότε μὲν γὰρ εἰς δούλους ἦν τὰ τολμώμενα, νῦν δὲ πάντα ἐκεῖνα τὰ παλαιὰ σαφῶς ἀπεκρύψατε διὰ τῆς εἰς τὸν κοινὸν δεσπότην Χριστὸν μανίας. ὅθεν καὶ μειζόνως κολάζεσθε, καὶ οὐδ' οὕτως ἀπέχεσθε τῆς πατρικῆς ἐμβροντησίας τε καὶ λύσσης, πλάνον αὐτὸν καὶ παράνομον ἀποκαλοῦντες. εἰ γοῦν πλάνος ἦν ὁ Χριστός, ὡς φατέ, καὶ παράνομος, ἐχρῆν μᾶλλον ὑμᾶς εὐδο κιμῆσαι, ὅτι αὐτὸν ἀπεκτείνατε. εἰ γὰρ Φινεὲς ἕνα τινὰ παρα νομοῦντα ἀνελὼν ὁλόκληρον τὴν κατὰ τοῦ ἔθνους ὀργὴν κατέπαυ σεν (ἔστη γὰρ Φινεὲς καὶ ἐξιλάσατο, καὶ ἐκόπασεν ἡ θραῦσις, καὶ ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην), πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἐφ' ὑμῶν ἔδει τοῦτο γενέσθαι, εἴ γε παράνομος ἦν ὁ ὑφ' ὑμῶν σταυρωθείς.