Chapter XXIII.—The Dispersion of the Jews, and Their Desolate Condition for Rejecting Christ, Foretold.

Now, since you join the Jews in denying that their Christ has come, recollect also what is that end which they were predicted as about to bring on themselves after the time of Christ, for the impiety wherewith they both rejected and slew Him. For it began to come to pass from that day, when, according to Isaiah, “a man threw away his idols of gold and of silver, which they made into useless and hurtful objects of worship;”1095    Isa. ii. 20. in other words, from the time when he threw away his idols after the truth had been made clear by Christ. Consider whether what follows in the prophet has not received its fulfilment: “The Lord of hosts hath taken away from Judah and from Jerusalem, amongst other things, both the prophet and the wise artificer;”1096    Architectum, Isa. iii. 1–3, abridged. that is, His Holy Spirit, who builds the church, which is indeed the temple, and household and city of God. For thenceforth God’s grace failed amongst them; and “the clouds were commanded to rain no rain upon the vineyard” of Sorech; to withhold, that is, the graces of heaven, that they shed no blessing upon “the house of Israel,” which had but produced “the thorns” wherewith it had crowned the Lord, and “instead of righteousness, the cry” wherewith it had hurried Him away to the cross.1097    Isa. v. 6, 7. And so in this manner the law and the prophets were until John, but the dews of divine grace were withdrawn from the nation. After his time their madness still continued, and the name of the Lord was blasphemed by them, as saith the Scripture: “Because of you my name is continually blasphemed amongst the nations”1098    Isa. lii. 5. (for from them did the blasphemy originate); neither in the interval from Tiberius to Vespasian did they learn repentance.1099    Compare Adv. Judæos, 13, p. 171, for a like statement. Therefore “has their land become desolate, their cities are burnt with fire, their country strangers are devouring before their own eyes; the daughter of Sion has been deserted like a cottage in a vineyard, or a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,”1100    Isa. i. 7, 8. ever since the time when “Israel acknowledged not the Lord, and the people understood Him not, but forsook Him, and provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger.”1101    Isa. i. 3, 4. So likewise that conditional threat of the sword, “If ye refuse and hear me not, the sword shall devour you,”1102    Isa. i. 20. has proved that it was Christ, for rebellion against whom they have perished. In the fifty-eighth Psalm He demands of the Father their dispersion:  “Scatter them in Thy power.”1103    Ps. lix. 11. By Isaiah He also says, as He finishes a prophecy of their consumption by fire:1104    Exustionem. “Because of me has this happened to you; ye shall lie down in sorrow.”1105    Isa. l. 11. But all this would be unmeaning enough, if they suffered this retribution not on account of Him, who had in prophecy assigned their suffering to His own cause, but for the sake of the Christ of the other god. Well, then, although you affirm that it is the Christ of the other god who was driven to the cross by the powers and authorities of the Creator, as it were by hostile beings, still I have to say, See how manifestly He was defended1106    Defensus, perhaps “claimed.” by the Creator: there were given to Him both “the wicked for His burial,” even those who had strenuously maintained that His corpse had been stolen, “and the rich for His death,”1107    See Isa. liii. 9. even those who had redeemed Him from the treachery of Judas, as well as from the lying report of the soldiers that His body had been taken away. Therefore these things either did not happen to the Jews on His account, in which case you will be refuted by the sense of the Scriptures tallying with the issue of the facts and the order of the times, or else they did happen on His account, and then the Creator could not have inflicted the vengeance except for His own Christ; nay, He must have rather had a reward for Judas, if it had been his master’s enemy whom they put to death. At all events,1108    Certe. if the Creator’s Christ has not come yet, on whose account the prophecy dooms them to such sufferings, they will have to endure the sufferings when He shall have come. Then where will there be a daughter of Sion to be reduced to desolation, for there is none now to be found? Where will there be cities to be burnt with fire, for they are now in heaps?1109    Compare a passage in the Apology, chap. xxi. p. 34, supra. Where a nation to be dispersed, which is already in banishment? Restore to Judæa its former state, that the Creator’s Christ may find it, and then you may contend that another Christ has come.  But then, again,1110    Jam vero. how is it that He can have permitted to range through1111    Admiserit per. His own heaven one whom He was some day to put to death on His own earth, after the more noble and glorious region of His kingdom had been violated, and His own very palace and sublimest height had been trodden by him? Or was it only in appearance rather that he did this?1112    Hoc affectavit. God is no doubt1113    Plane. a jealous God! Yet he gained the victory. You should blush with shame, who put your faith in a vanquished god!  What have you to hope for from him, who was not strong enough to protect himself? For it was either through his infirmity that he was crushed by the powers and human agents of the Creator, or else through maliciousness, in order that he might fasten so great a stigma on them by his endurance of their wickedness.

CAPUT XXIII.

Nunc quia cum Judaeis negas venisse Christum eorum, recognosce et exitum ipsorum, quem post Christum relaturi praedicabantur, ob impietatem qua eum 0353C et despexerunt, et interemerunt. Primum enim ex die, qua secundum Esaiam (Is., II, 20), Projecit homo aspernamenta sua aurea et argentea, quae fecerunt adorandis vanis et noctuis ; id est, ex quo genus hominum, dilucidata per Christum veritate, idola projecit; vide an quod sequitur expunctum sit: Abstulit (Is., III, 1, 2) enim Dominus sabaoth a Judaea, et ab Hierusalem inter caetera, et prophetam, et sapientem architectum; Spiritum scilicet Sanctum, qui aedificat Ecclesiam, templum scilicet et domum et civitatem Dei: nam exinde apud illos destitit Dei gratia. Et (Is., V, 6) mandatum est nubibus, ne pluerent imbrem super vineam Sorech; id est, coelestibus beneficiis, ne provenirent domui Israelis. Fecerat enim spinas, 0354A ex quibus Dominum coronaverat; et non justitiam, sed clamorem quo in crucem cum extorserat . Et ita subtractis charismatum roribus , Lex et Prophetae usque ad Joannem. Dehinc, cum ex perseverantia furoris, et nomen Domini per ipsos blasphemaretur, sicut scriptum est (Is. LII, 5): Propter vos blasphematur nomen meum in nationibus (ab illis enim coepit infamia) et tempus medium a Tiberio usque ad Vespasianum , non poenitentiam intellexissent , facta est terra eorum deserta (Is. I, 7), civitates eorum exustae igni , regionem eorum sub ipsorum conspectu extranei devorant; derelicta est filia Sion, tanquam specula in vinca, vel in cucumerario casula ; ex quo scilicet Israel Dominum non cognovit, et populus eum non 0354B intellexit, sed dereliquit, et in indignationem provocavit Sanctum Israelis. Sic et machaerae conditionalis comminatio (Ps. I, 20): Si nolueritis, nec audieritis me, machaera vos comedet; probavit Christum fuisse, quem non audiendo, perierunt. Qui et in psalmo quinquagesimo octavo, dispersionem eis postulat a Patre (Ps. LVIII, 12): Disperge eos in virtute tua. Qui et rursus per Esaiam, in exustionem eorum perorans: Propter me, inquit, haec facta sunt vobis: in anxietate dormietis. Satis vane, si haec non propter eum passi sunt, qui propter se passuros pronuntiarat, sed propter Christum Dei alterius. Atquin Christum, inquam, alterius Dei dicit, a Creatoris virtutibus et potestatibus, ut ab aemulis in crucem actum. Sed ecce defensus ostenditur a Creatore (Is. LIII, 9): et dati 0354C sunt pessimi pro sepultura ejus; qui scilicet subreptum eum asseveraverant: et locupletes pro morte ejus; qui scilicet et a Juda traditionem redemerant, et a militibus falsum testimonium cadaveris subrepti. Igitur, aut non propter illum acciderunt ista Judaeis; sed revinceris conspirante sensu Scripturarum cum exitu rerum et ordine temporum; aut si propter illum acciderunt, non potuit Creator ulcisci, nisi suum Christum, remuneraturus potius Judam, si adversarium Domini sui peremissent. Certe si nondum venit Christus Creatoris, propter quem haec passuri praedicantur, cum venerit ergo, patientur. Et ubi tunc filia Sion derelinquenda, quae nulla hodie est? ubi civitates exurendae, quae jam in tumulis? ubi dispersio 0355A gentis, quae jam extorris? Redde statum Judaeae, quem Christus Creatoris inveniat, et alium contende venisse. Jam vero quale est, ut per coelum suum admiserit, quem in terra sua esset interempturus, honestiore et gloriosiore regni sui regione violata, ipsa aula sua et arce calcata? An hoc magis affectavit? Plane Deus zelotes, tamen vicit. Erubesce, qui victo Deo credis. Quid sperabis ab eo qui se protegere non valuit? Aut enim per infirmitatem oppressus est a virtutibus et hominibus Creatoris, aut per malitiositatem, ut tantum illis sceleris patientia infigeret.