An Answer to the Jews

VERY RECENTLY: a dispute took place between a Christian and a Jewish proselyte. Back and forth, in a quarrelsome exchange, they stretched the discussion out through the whole day until evening. And because of the conflicting noise made by some supporters of each man, the truth began to be covered over, as if by a kind of cloud. Therefore, it pleased us that what could not be explained fully point by point because of the confused noise of the debate should be examined more carefully, and that the pen should settle in writing, for readers, the questions that were discussed.

NOW: there was a very fitting reason for claiming divine grace even for the Gentiles. The man who took it on himself to defend God's Law as his own was a Gentile, not a Jew from the stock of Israel, Philippians 3:5. This fact alone, that Gentiles are admitted to God's Law, is enough to keep Israel from boasting, as if the Gentiles were counted only as a drop from a bucket or as dust from a threshing floor. But we also have God Himself as a sufficient guarantor and faithful promiser, since He promised Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. He also declared that from Rebekah's womb two peoples and two nations were about to come forth: plainly those of the Jews, that is, Israel, and those of the Gentiles, that is, ours. So each was called a people and a nation, so that no one might dare, because of the name itself, to claim the privilege of grace for himself. For God ordained that two peoples and two nations would come from the womb of one woman. Grace did not make a distinction in the naming, but in the order of birth. The one that came out first from the womb was to be made subject to the smaller, that is, the one that came later. For this is what God said to Rebekah: "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be divided from your bowels; and people shall overcome people, and the greater shall serve the less." Accordingly, since the people or nation of the Jews is earlier in time, and greater through the grace of first favor in the Law, while ours is understood to be less in the ages of time, because it gained the knowledge of divine mercy in the last age of the world, then without doubt, by the decree of the divine word, the earlier and greater people, that is, the Jewish people, must serve the less. And the less people, that is, the Christian people, overcomes the greater. For according to the recorded witness of the divine Scriptures, the people of the Jews, that is, the older people, completely forsook God and gave disgraceful service to idols. Abandoning God, it was handed over to images, while the people said to Aaron, "Make us gods to go before us." And when the gold from the women's necklaces and the men's rings had been completely melted in the fire, and a calf's head came out, Israel with one consent gave honor to this thing they had made, after abandoning God, saying, "These are the gods who brought us out of the land of Egypt." In the later times also, when kings ruled over them, they again worshiped golden calves along with Jeroboam, and groves, and made themselves slaves to Baal. From this it is proved, from the book of the divine Scriptures, that they have always been shown to be guilty of the crime of idolatry. But our lesser people, that is, the later people, has left the idols that it formerly served like slaves, and has been turned to the same God from whom Israel, as we have said above, had departed, 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10. In this way the less, that is, the later people, has overcome the greater people, while it receives the grace of divine favor, from which Israel has been separated.

THEREFORE: let us stand face to face and settle the heart and substance of the actual question in clear, definite terms.

WHY: then, should God—the Founder of the universe, the Ruler of the whole world, the Maker of humanity, the Sower of all nations—be thought to have given a law through Moses to one people, and not be said to have assigned it to all nations? For unless He had given it to all, He would never have regularly allowed even proselytes from the nations to have access to it. But, as fits the goodness of God and His fairness, as the Maker of mankind, He gave the very same law to all nations. At fixed and appointed times, He commanded that it should be observed, when He willed, and through whom He willed, and as He willed. For at the beginning of the world, He gave a law to Adam himself and Eve: they were not to eat from the fruit of the tree planted in the middle of paradise. But if they did otherwise, they would surely die. That law would have been enough for them, if it had been kept. For in this law given to Adam, we recognize in seed form all the commands that later sprang up when they were given through Moses. That is: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not speak false witness. Honor your father and mother. And you shall not covet what belongs to another. For the first law was given to Adam and Eve in paradise as the womb of all God's commands. In short, if they had loved the Lord their God, they would not have gone against His command. If they had continued loving their neighbor—that is, themselves—they would not have believed the serpent's persuasion. And so they would not have committed murder against themselves by falling from immortality through disobeying God's command. They would also have kept away from theft, if they had not secretly tasted the fruit of the tree, and had not tried to hide under a tree to escape the sight of the Lord their God. Nor would they have become partners with the devil who affirmed falsehood, by believing him when he said that they would be like God. And so they would not have offended God either, as their Father, who had formed them from the clay of the earth, as from a mother's womb. If they had not desired what belonged to another, they would not have tasted the forbidden fruit.

THEREFORE: in this general and first law of God, whose observance He enforced in the matter of the tree's fruit, we recognize that all the commands of the later Law were contained within it. These later commands sprang up when they were revealed at their proper times. For the later addition of a law is the work of the same One who had already given a command before. It belongs to Him afterward to train those whom He had first decided to make into righteous creatures. For what is strange if He extends a discipline that He Himself established? If He advances what He began? In short, before the Law of Moses, written on stone tablets, I maintain that there was an unwritten law, which was naturally understood and was regularly kept by the fathers. For how was Noah found righteous, if the righteousness of a natural law had not already existed in his case? How was Abraham counted as a friend of God, except on the basis of fairness and righteousness in keeping a natural law? How was Melchizedek called priest of the Most High God, unless, before the priesthood of the Levitical law, there had already been those who were accustomed to offer sacrifices to God? For in this way, after the patriarchs mentioned above, the Law was given to Moses at that well-known time after their departure from Egypt, after an interval of four hundred years. In fact, the Law was given after Abraham's four hundred and thirty years. From this we understand that God's law existed before Moses. It was not first given at Horeb, or at Sinai, or in the wilderness, but was more ancient. It existed first in paradise, was afterward renewed for the patriarchs, and then again for the Jews at fixed times. So we must not regard the Law of Moses as the original law, but as a later one, which God at a definite time set forth for the Gentiles also and, after repeatedly promising to do so through the prophets, renewed for the better. He also gave warning beforehand that, just as the law was given through Moses, John 1:17, at a definite time, so it should be understood to have been observed and kept only for a time. And let us not take away this power that God has, by which He reforms the law's commands according to the circumstances of the times, with a view to man's salvation. Finally, let the man who argues that the Sabbath must still be observed as a remedy of salvation, and that circumcision must still be practiced on the eighth day because of the threat of death, teach us that righteous men in past times kept the Sabbath or practiced circumcision, and so were made friends of God. For if circumcision cleanses a man, since God made Adam uncircumcised, why did He not circumcise him even after he sinned, if circumcision cleanses? At any rate, when He placed him in paradise, He appointed an uncircumcised man as the inhabitant of paradise. Therefore, since God created Adam uncircumcised and not observing the Sabbath, his offspring Abel also, offering sacrifices to Him uncircumcised and not observing the Sabbath, was commended by Him. God accepted what he offered in simplicity of heart, and rejected the sacrifice of his brother Cain, who was not rightly dividing what he offered. Noah also, uncircumcised, yes, and not observing the Sabbath, God delivered from the flood. Enoch too, a most righteous man, uncircumcised and not observing the Sabbath, He transferred from this world. He did not first taste death, so that, as a candidate for eternal life, he might by this time show us that we too may please God without the burden of the law of Moses. Melchizedek also, the priest of the Most High God, uncircumcised and not observing the Sabbath, was chosen for the priesthood of God. Lot likewise, the brother of Abraham, proves that it was because of the merits of righteousness, without observance of the law, that he was delivered from the burning of the Sodomites.

BUT ABRAHAM: you say, was circumcised. Yes, but he pleased God before his circumcision, and he also did not keep the Sabbath. He did receive circumcision, but it was meant to be a sign for that time, not a special claim to salvation. In fact, later patriarchs were uncircumcised, such as Melchizedek. Though uncircumcised, he offered bread and wine to Abraham himself, who was already circumcised, when he returned from battle. But again, you say, Moses' son would once have been struck down by an angel if Zipporah had not circumcised the child's foreskin with a stone. So then, you say, there is the greatest danger if anyone fails to circumcise the foreskin of his flesh. No. If circumcision itself brought salvation, then Moses would certainly not have failed to circumcise his own son on the eighth day. Yet it is agreed that Zipporah did it on the journey, because the angel compelled it. So we should understand that the forced circumcision of one single infant could not have laid down a rule for every people, or established, so to speak, a law requiring this command to be kept. For God foresaw that He was about to give this circumcision to the people of Israel as a sign, not for salvation. For this reason He pressed for the circumcision of Moses' son, the son of their future leader. Since through Moses He had begun to give the people the command of circumcision, the people should not despise it by seeing this example of neglect clearly shown already in their leader's son. For circumcision had to be given, but as a sign. By this sign Israel would in the last time have to be marked out, when, according to what they deserved, they would be forbidden to enter the holy city. We see this through the words of the prophets, who say, "Your land is desolate; your cities are completely burned with fire; strangers devour your country before your eyes; and the daughter of Zion is left desolate, like a hut in a vineyard, like a shelter in a cucumber field, like a city under siege." Why is this so? Because the next words of the prophet rebuke them, saying, "Sons I have begotten and raised up, but they have rejected me"; and again, "Even if you stretch out your hands, I will turn my face away from you; and even if you multiply prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood," Isaiah 1:15; and again, "Woe to the sinful nation, a people full of sins, wicked sons; you have completely forsaken God and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger," Isaiah 1:4. This, then, was God's foresight: to give circumcision to Israel as a sign by which they might be marked out when the time came in which their sins, just mentioned, would keep them from being admitted into Jerusalem. Because this was going to happen, it used to be foretold; and because we see it fulfilled, we recognize it. For just as fleshly circumcision, which was temporary, was given as a sign in a stubborn people, so spiritual circumcision has been given for salvation to an obedient people. As the prophet Jeremiah says, "Make a renewal for yourselves, and do not sow among thorns; be circumcised to God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart." And in another place he says, "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will establish a new covenant for the house of Judah and for the house of Jacob, not like the one I gave their fathers on the day when I led them out of the land of Egypt." Therefore we understand that the future ending of the former circumcision that had then been given, and the coming forth of a new law, not like the one He had already given to the fathers, were being announced. In the same way, Isaiah foretold it, saying that in the last days the mountain of the Lord and the house of God would appear above the tops of the mountains: "And it shall be lifted up," he says, "above the hills; and all nations shall come to it; and many shall go and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob," Isaiah 2:2-3. Not of Esau, the first son, but of Jacob, the second; that is, of our people, whose mountain is Christ, cut out without human hands, filling every land, as shown in the book of Daniel. In short, Isaiah announces in the words that follow that a new law would come forth from this house of the God of Jacob. He says, "For out of Zion shall go forth a law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and He shall judge among the nations"—that is, among us, who have been called out from the nations—"and they shall beat their swords into plows, and their spears into sickles; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and they shall no longer learn war," Isaiah 2:3-4. Who else, then, can be meant except us, who, having been fully taught by the new law, practice these things? The old law has been erased, and the fact itself shows that its abolition has come. For the custom of the old law was to avenge itself by the sword, to take an eye for an eye, and to repay injury with equal revenge. But the custom of the new law was to point to mercy, to turn the former fierceness of swords and spears into peace, and to reshape the former practice of war against the enemies and opponents of the law into the peaceful work of plowing and farming the land. Therefore, just as we have shown above that the coming end of the old law and of fleshly circumcision was declared, so also the observance of the new law and spiritual circumcision has clearly appeared in willing acts of peace. For he says, "A people whom I had not known has served me; in hearing with the ear it has obeyed me." The prophets announced this. But what is the people that did not know God, except ours, who in former times did not know God? And who gave heed to Him by hearing, except us, who have turned to God after leaving idols? For Israel, who had been known by God, who had been raised up by Him in Egypt, who was brought through the Red Sea, who in the wilderness was fed with manna for forty years, who was fashioned into a likeness of eternity and was not corrupted by human passions, nor fed on the foods of this world, but fed on angels' bread, that is, manna, and was fully bound to God by His benefits, forgot his Lord and God, saying to Aaron, "Make us gods to go before us; for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, he has completely forsaken us, and we do not know what has happened to him." And so we, who in former times were not the people of God, have been made His people by receiving the new law mentioned above and the new circumcision foretold before.

ACCORDINGLY: just as it is shown that the ending of physical circumcision and of the old law was completed at their appointed times, so also it is shown that keeping the Sabbath was temporary.

FOR THE JEWS SAY THAT FROM THE BEGINNING GOD MADE THE SEVENTH DAY HOLY BY RESTING ON IT FROM ALL HIS WORKS THAT HE MADE: They also say that this is why Moses said to the people, “Remember the day of the Sabbaths, to keep it holy: you shall do no servile work in it, except what pertains to life.” From this, we Christians understand that we ought even more to keep a sabbath from all servile work at all times, and not only every seventh day, but throughout all time. And because of this, the question arises for us: what sabbath did God will us to keep? For the Scriptures point to an eternal sabbath and a temporal sabbath. For Isaiah the prophet says, “My soul hates your Sabbaths,” Isaiah 1:13, and in another place he says, “You have profaned My Sabbaths.” From this we see that the temporal sabbath is human, and the eternal sabbath is counted as divine. About this He predicts through Isaiah: “And it shall be,” He says, “month after month, and day after day, and sabbath after sabbath; and all flesh shall come to worship in Jerusalem,” says the Lord. We understand this to have been fulfilled in the times of Christ, when all flesh—that is, every nation—came to worship God the Father in Jerusalem through Jesus Christ His Son, just as was predicted through the prophet: “Behold, proselytes through me shall go to You.” Thus, therefore, even before this temporal sabbath, an eternal sabbath had also been foreshown and foretold, just as before carnal circumcision a spiritual circumcision had also been foreshown. In short, let them teach us, as we have already said, that Adam observed the sabbath; or that Abel, when offering God a holy sacrifice, pleased Him by a religious reverence for the sabbath; or that Enoch, when he was taken up, had been a keeper of the sabbath; or that Noah the ark-builder observed, because of the flood, an immense sabbath; or that Abraham, in observance of the sabbath, offered Isaac his son; or that Melchizedek, in his priesthood, received the law of the sabbath.

BUT THE JEWS WILL CERTAINLY SAY THAT: ever since this command was given through Moses, its observance has been binding. It is clear, then, that the command was not eternal or spiritual, but temporary, and that one day it would cease. In short, it is very true that the keeping of this solemn day does not consist in resting from work on the Sabbath, that is, the seventh day. For when Joshua the son of Nun was taking the city of Jericho in war, he said that he had received a command from God to order the people that the priests should carry the ark of the covenant of God around the city for seven days. Then, after the circuit on the seventh day had been completed, the walls of the city would fall on their own. Joshua 6:1-20 This was done. And when the time of the seventh day was completed, just as had been foretold, the walls of the city fell down. From this it is plainly shown that a Sabbath day came within the number of those seven days. For seven days, no matter when they began, must necessarily include a Sabbath day. On that day, not only did the priests have to work, but all the people of Israel had to put the city to the sword. And there is no doubt that they did servile work when, in obedience to God's command, they carried off the spoils of war. In the time of the Maccabees also, they acted bravely by fighting on the Sabbaths, and they put their foreign enemies to flight. By fighting on the Sabbaths, they also called back the law of their fathers to its original way of life. Nor would I think that it was any law other than the one in which they remembered the rule concerning the day of the Sabbaths.

FROM THIS IT IS CLEAR THAT THE FORCE OF SUCH COMMANDS WAS TEMPORARY AND APPLIED TO THE NEED OF THE PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES: and that God formerly gave them such a law not for it to be kept forever.

SO AGAIN: we show that sacrifices of earthly offerings and spiritual sacrifices were foretold. Moreover, from the beginning, the earthly sacrifices were shown beforehand, in the person of Cain, to be those of the elder son, that is, of Israel. And the opposite sacrifices were shown to be those of the younger son, Abel, that is, of our people. For the elder, Cain, offered gifts to God from the fruit of the earth. But the younger son, Abel, offered from the fruit of his ewes. God had respect to Abel and to his gifts. But to Cain and to his gifts He had no respect. And God said to Cain, "Why has your countenance fallen? Have you not sinned, if you do indeed offer rightly, but do not divide rightly? Hold your peace. For to you shall be your conversion, and he shall lord it over you." Then Cain said to Abel his brother, "Let us go into the field." And he went away with him there, and he slew him. Then God said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" To him God said, "The voice of the blood of your brother cries out to me from the earth. Therefore cursed is the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive the blood of your brother. Groaning and trembling shall you be upon the earth, and everyone who finds you shall slay you." From this proceeding we gather that the twofold sacrifices of the peoples were shown beforehand from the very beginning. In short, when the priestly law was being drawn up through Moses in Leviticus, we find that it was prescribed to the people of Israel that sacrifices should be offered to God in no place except in the land of promise, which the Lord God was about to give to the people Israel and to their brothers. The purpose was that, when Israel had been brought in there, sacrifices and holocausts should be celebrated there, both for sins and for lives, and nowhere else except in the holy land. Why, then, does the Spirit afterward predict through the prophets that it would come to pass that in every place and in every land sacrifices should be offered to God? As He says through the angel Malachi, one of the twelve prophets: "I will not receive sacrifice from your hands; for from the rising sun to the setting my Name has been made famous among all the nations, says the Lord Almighty; and in every place they offer clean sacrifices to my Name." Again, in the Psalms, David says: "Bring to God, you countries of the nations"—without doubt because the preaching of the apostles had to go out to every land—"bring to God fame and honor; bring to God the sacrifices of His name; take up victims and enter into His courts." For that offering is to be made to God not by earthly sacrifices but by spiritual sacrifices, we read this, as it is written: "A contrite and humbled heart is a victim for God"; and elsewhere, "Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise, and render to the Highest your vows." Thus, accordingly, the spiritual sacrifices of praise are pointed out, and a contrite heart is shown to be an acceptable sacrifice to God. And thus, as carnal sacrifices are understood to be rejected—of which Isaiah also speaks, saying, "To what end is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the Lord," Isaiah 1:11—so spiritual sacrifices are foretold as accepted, as the prophets announce. For, "Even if you shall have brought me the finest wheat flour," He says, "it is a vain gift of supplication, a thing execrable to me." And again He says, "Your holocausts and sacrifices, and the fat of goats, and blood of bulls, I will not, not even if you come to be seen by me. For who has required these things from your hands? For from the rising sun to the setting, my Name has been made famous among all the nations, says the Lord." But of the spiritual sacrifices He adds, saying, "And in every place they offer clean sacrifices to my Name, says the Lord."

THEREFORE: since it is clear that a temporary Sabbath was shown, and an eternal Sabbath was foretold; that a fleshly circumcision was foretold, and a spiritual circumcision was indicated beforehand; that a temporary law and an eternal law were plainly declared; and that fleshly sacrifices and spiritual sacrifices were foreshown; it follows that, after all these commands had been given in a fleshly way in earlier times to the people of Israel, a time would come when the commands of the ancient Law and the old ceremonies would cease. Then the promise of the new law, the acknowledgment of spiritual sacrifices, and the promise of the New Testament would take their place, while the light from above would shine on us who were sitting in darkness and were being held in the shadow of death. And so there is laid on us a necessity, 1 Corinthians 9:16, since we have already stated that a new law was predicted by the prophets, and not one like that which had already been given to their fathers at the time when He led them out of the land of Egypt, to show and prove, on the one hand, that the old Law has ceased, and on the other hand, that the promised new law is now in effect.

AND FIRST: we must ask whether a giver of the new law is expected, and an heir of the new testament, and a priest of the new sacrifices, and a purger of the new circumcision, and an observer of the eternal Sabbath. We must ask whether one is expected who will put an end to the old law, establish the new testament, offer the new sacrifices, restrain the ancient ceremonies, put an end to the old circumcision along with its own Sabbath, and announce the new kingdom that is not corruptible. I say that we must ask whether this giver of the new law, this observer of the spiritual Sabbath, this priest of the eternal sacrifices, this eternal ruler of the eternal kingdom, has come or not. If he has already come, then service must be rendered to him. If he has not yet come, then he must be awaited, until by his coming it becomes clear that the commands of the old Law are put an end to, and that the beginnings of the new law ought to arise. And first of all, we must state that the ancient Law and the prophets could not have ceased unless He had come who was continually announced, through that same Law and through those same prophets, as the one who was to come.

THEREFORE: on this point we stand face to face: whether the Christ who was constantly announced as coming has already come, or whether His coming is still a matter of hope. To prove this question, we must also examine the times when the prophets announced that Christ would come. Then, if we can recognize that He came within those times, we may without doubt believe that He is the very one whose future coming was always the subject of prophetic song, and in whom we—the nations, that is—were always foretold to believe. And when it has been agreed that He has come, we may likewise without doubt believe that the new law was given by Him, and not deny the new testament drawn up for us in Him and through Him. For we know that Christ was to come, and even the Jews do not try to deny this, since they are directing their hope toward His coming. Nor do we need to inquire further about this matter, since long ago all the prophets prophesied of it. For example, Isaiah says: "Thus says the Lord God to my Christ the Lord, whose right hand I have held, that the nations may hear Him; the powers of kings I will burst apart; I will open before Him the gates, and the cities shall not be closed to Him." This very thing we see fulfilled. For whose right hand does God the Father hold except Christ's, His Son's? He is the one whom all nations have heard, that is, whom all nations have believed. And His preachers, the apostles, are also pointed out in the Psalms of David: "Into all the earth," he says, "their sound has gone out, and their words to the ends of the world." For in whom else have all the nations believed, except in the Christ who has already come? In whom have the nations believed—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and those who live in Mesopotamia, Armenia, Phrygia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, and Pamphylia; those staying in Egypt, and those living in the region of Africa beyond Cyrene; Romans and foreigners; yes, even Jews in Jerusalem, and all other nations? For example, even now the various tribes of the Gætulians, the many borders of the Moors, all the limits of Spain, the different nations of Gaul, and the regions of the Britons—inaccessible to the Romans, but brought into subjection to Christ—and of the Sarmatians, Dacians, Germans, and Scythians, and many remote nations, and many provinces and islands unknown to us, which we can hardly even list. In all these places, the name of the Christ who has already come reigns. He is the one before whom the gates of all cities have been opened, and to whom none are closed; before whom iron bars have been broken and bronze gates opened. Although these words also have a spiritual meaning—that the hearts of individuals, shut up in various ways by the devil, are opened by faith in Christ—still they have plainly been fulfilled, since in all these places there lives a people belonging to the name of Christ. For who could have ruled over all nations except Christ, God's Son, who was always announced as the one who would reign over all forever? For if Solomon reigned, it was only within the borders of Judea; the boundaries of his kingdom are marked from Beersheba to Dan. If Darius ruled over the Babylonians and Parthians, he did not have power over all nations. If Pharaoh, or whoever succeeded him in his inherited kingdom, ruled over the Egyptians, he possessed the rule of his kingdom only in that land. If Nebuchadnezzar ruled with his lesser kings, the boundaries of his kingdom were from India to Ethiopia. If Alexander the Macedonian ruled, he did not hold more than all Asia and other regions after he had fully conquered them. If the Germans rule, to this day they are not allowed to cross their own borders. The Britons are shut in by the circle of their own ocean. The nations of the Moors, and the barbarian people of the Gætulians, are blocked in by the Romans, so that they may not go beyond the borders of their own regions. What shall I say of the Romans themselves, who strengthen their own empire with garrisons from their own legions, and cannot extend the power of their kingdom beyond these nations? But Christ's name is spreading everywhere, believed everywhere, worshipped by all the nations listed above, reigning everywhere, adored everywhere, given equally everywhere to all. With Him, no king finds greater favor and no barbarian less joy. No ranks or family lines receive special advantage. He is equal to all, King to all, Judge to all, God and Lord to all. John 20:28. Nor would you hesitate to believe what we declare, since you see it happening.

ACCORDINGLY: we must examine the times concerning the predicted future birth of the Christ, His suffering, and the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, that is, its devastation. For Daniel says that both the holy city and the holy place are destroyed together with the coming Leader, and that the pinnacle is destroyed in ruin. And so we must examine the times of the coming Christ, the Leader, Isaiah 55:4, which we will trace in Daniel. After calculating them, we will prove that He has come, on the basis of the appointed times and His fitting signs and works. We prove these things again by the results that were always announced as following His coming, so that we may believe that everything was fulfilled just as it was foreseen.

IN THIS WAY: then, Daniel prophesied about Him, showing both when and at what time He would set the nations free, and how, after the suffering of the Christ, that city had to be destroyed. For he says this: “In the first year under Darius, son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldees, I, Daniel, understood in the books the number of the years. And while I was still speaking in my prayer, behold, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying, touched me, as it were, at the time of the evening sacrifice. He made me understand, and spoke with me, and said, ‘Daniel, I have now come out to give you understanding. At the beginning of your supplication, a word went out. And I have come to tell you, because you are a man of desires. Therefore consider the word, and understand the vision. Seventy hebdomads have been cut short upon your people and upon the holy city, until wrongdoing is made complete, and sins are sealed up, and righteousness is obtained by entreaty, and eternal righteousness is brought in, and so that vision and prophet may be sealed, and a holy one of holy ones anointed. And you shall know, and clearly see, and understand, from the going out of a word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the Christ, the Leader, hebdomads, seven and a half, and sixty-two and a half. And it shall return, and shall be built up with height and trench, and the times shall be renewed. And after these sixty-two hebdomads, the anointing shall be destroyed, and shall not be. And the city and the holy place he shall destroy together with the Leader who is making His advent. And they shall be cut short as in a flood, until the end of a war, which shall be cut short to ruin. And he shall confirm a testament in many. In one hebdomad, and the half of the hebdomad, my sacrifice and libation shall be taken away, and in the holy place shall be the abomination of devastation, until the end of the time consummation shall be given concerning this devastation.’”

THEREFORE: let us observe the limit. He really predicts that there will be seventy weeks, and that within them, if they receive Him, the city will be built up with height and fortification, and the times will be renewed. But God foresaw what was going to happen: they would not only fail to receive Him, but would also persecute Him and hand Him over to death. So He both summed it up and said that in sixty-two and a half weeks He is born, and a Holy One of holy ones is anointed. But when seven and a half weeks were being completed, He had to suffer, and after one and a half weeks the holy city had to be destroyed. In this way, the seven and a half weeks have been completed. For he says this: "And the city and the holy place are to be destroyed together with the leader who is to come; and they will be cut short as in a flood; and he will destroy the pinnacle to ruin." Therefore, from where do we show that the Christ came within the sixty-two and a half weeks? We will count, moreover, from the first year of Darius, since it is at that time that this vision is shown to Daniel. For he says, "And understand and conclude that at the completion of your word I make these answers to you." Therefore, we are required to calculate from the first year of Darius, when Daniel saw this vision.

LET US SEE: therefore, how the years are completed up to the coming of the Christ:

FOR DARIUS REIGNED NINETEEN YEARS:

Artaxerxes reigned forty-one years.

THEN KING OCHUS: who is also called Cyrus, reigned twenty-four years.

ARGUS: ..one year.

ANOTHER DARIUS: who is also called Melas, reigned twenty-one years.

ALEXANDER THE MACEDONIAN: .. twelve years.

THEN: after Alexander had ruled over both the Medes and the Persians, whom he had conquered again, and had firmly established his kingdom in Alexandria, also calling that city by his own name, after him there reigned there, in Alexandria,

SOTER: .. thirty-five years.

Philadelphus succeeded him and reigned for thirty-eight years.

Euergetes succeeds him for twenty-five years.

THEN PHILOPATOR: .. seventeen years.

AFTER HIM CAME EPIPHANES: for twenty-four years.

Then another Euergetes reigned for twenty-nine years.

THEN ANOTHER SOTER: ... thirty-eight years.

PTOLEMY: .. thirty-seven years.

CLEOPATRA: twenty years and five months.

THEN AGAIN: Cleopatra reigned together with Augustus for thirteen years.

AFTER CLEOPATRA: Augustus reigned for another forty-three years.

For all the years of the reign of Augustus were fifty-six years.

LET US SEE: moreover, how Christ was born in the forty-first year of the rule of Augustus, when he had been reigning for twenty-eight years after the death of Cleopatra. And Augustus lived fifteen years after Christ was born. The remaining years up to the day of Christ's birth bring us to the forty-first year, which is the twenty-eighth year of Augustus after the death of Cleopatra. So then, there are made up three hundred thirty-seven years and five months. From this, sixty-two and a half weeks are completed, making up four hundred thirty-seven years and six months, on the day of Christ's birth. And then everlasting righteousness was revealed, and a Holy One of holy ones was anointed — that is, Christ. Vision and prophet were sealed, and sins were remitted, which are washed away through faith in the name of Christ for all who believe in Him. But what does he mean by saying that vision and prophecy are sealed? He means that all the prophets always announced that He was to come and had to suffer. Therefore, since the prophecy was fulfilled by His coming, he said for that reason that vision and prophecy were sealed, since He is the signet of all the prophets, fulfilling all the things that they had announced about Him in former days. For after the coming of Christ and His passion, there is no longer vision or prophet to announce that He is still to come. In short, if this is not so, let the Jews produce, after Christ, any books of prophets, or any visible miracles worked by angels, like those that the patriarchs saw in former days until the coming of Christ, who has now come. Since that event, vision and prophecy are sealed, that is, confirmed. And the evangelist rightly writes, "The law and the prophets were until John the Baptist." For when Christ was baptized, that is, when He sanctified the waters in His own baptism, all the fullness of the former spiritual gifts ceased in Christ, as He sealed all visions and prophecies, which He fulfilled by His coming. Therefore, he states most firmly that His coming seals visions and prophecy.

ACCORDINGLY: after showing, as we have done, both the number of the years and the time of the sixty-two and a half fulfilled weeks, at the end of which, as we have shown, Christ came, that is, was born, let us see what the other seven and a half weeks mean. These were set apart by the cutting off of the former weeks. Let us see, then, in what event they were fulfilled:

FOR AFTER AUGUSTUS: who lived after the birth of Christ, there are counted fifteen years.

TIBERIUS CAESAR SUCCEEDED HIM AND HELD THE EMPIRE FOR TWENTY YEARS: seven months, and twenty-eight days.

IN THE FIFTIETH YEAR OF HIS REIGN: Christ suffered, being about thirty years old when He suffered.

AGAIN: Gaius Caesar, also called Caligula, ruled for 3 years, 8 months, and 13 days.

NERO CAESAR: eleven years, nine months, thirteen days.

GALBA: .. seven months, six days. (7 etc.).

OTHO: ..iii days.

VITELLIUS: .. eight months, twenty-seven days. (8 months.)

IN THE FIRST YEAR OF HIS RULE: Vespasian subdued the Jews in war, and this made fifty-two years and six months. For he reigned eleven years. And so, on the day their city was stormed, the Jews fulfilled the seventy weeks foretold in Daniel.

THEREFORE: when those times also were completed and the Jews were subdued, drink offerings and sacrifices afterward ceased in that place. From then on, they have not been able to be celebrated there. For the anointing also was destroyed in that place after the passion of Christ. For it had been foretold that the anointing would be destroyed in that place, as it is prophesied in the Psalms: “They pierced my hands and my feet.” And the suffering of this destruction was completed within the times of the seventy weeks, under Tiberius Caesar, in the consulship of Rubellius Geminus and Fufius Geminus, in the month of March, at the time of the Passover, on the eighth day before the calends of April, on the first day of unleavened bread, on which they killed the lamb in the evening, just as Moses had commanded. Accordingly, the whole synagogue of Israel did kill Him, saying to Pilate when he wanted to release Him, “His blood be on us and on our children,” and, “If you release him, you are not a friend of Caesar,” John 19:12, so that all things might be fulfilled that had been written about Him.

LET US BEGIN: therefore, to prove that the birth of Christ was announced by the prophets. For example, Isaiah foretells it: "Listen, house of David. Is it not enough for you to have a petty contest with men, since God is proposing a struggle? Therefore God Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call His name Emmanuel," which means, "God with us." "He shall eat butter and honey, since before the child learns to call father or mother, he shall receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, against the king of the Assyrians."

ACCORDINGLY: the Jews say, "Let us test that prophecy of Isaiah, and compare whether, in the case of the Christ who has already come, first, the name that Isaiah foretold applies to Him, and second, the signs of it that he announced about Him."

WELL THEN: Isaiah foretells that He ought to be called Emmanuel, and that afterward He is to take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, in opposition to the king of the Assyrians. Now they say, this Christ of yours who has come was neither called by that name nor engaged in warfare. But we, on the contrary, think they should also be warned to remember the context of this passage. For the interpretation of Emmanuel is added as well: “God with us,” so that you may consider not only the sound of the name, but also its meaning. For the Hebrew sound, which is Emmanuel, has the interpretation, “God with us.” Ask, then, whether this expression, “God with us,” which is Emmanuel, has commonly been applied to Christ ever since Christ’s light dawned, and I think you will not deny it. For those out of Judaism who believe in Christ, ever since they believed in Him, whenever they wish to say Emmanuel, mean that God is with us. And so it is agreed that He who was always foretold as Emmanuel has already come, because what Emmanuel means has come, that is, God with us. In the same way, they are led by the sound of the name when they understand the power of Damascus, and the spoils of Samaria, and the kingdom of the Assyrians, as if these foretold Christ as a warrior. They do not notice that Scripture says first that, before the child learns to call father or mother, he will receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, in opposition to the king of the Assyrians. For the first step is to look at the proof of His age, and see whether the age pointed out there can possibly show the Christ as already a man, much less a general. Of course, by His baby cry the infant would call men to arms. He would give the signal of war not with a trumpet, but with a rattle. He would point out the enemy not from the back of a war horse or from a wall, but from the back or neck of the one suckling Him and of His nurse. And so He would subdue Damascus and Samaria in place of the breast. It would be another matter if, among you, infants rush out into battle, first rubbed with oil, I suppose, to dry in the sun, and then armed with satchels and fed on butter, who are to know how to use a spear sooner than how to tear the bosom! Certainly, if nature nowhere allows this, namely, that someone should serve as a soldier before growing into manhood, or take the power of Damascus before knowing your father, then it follows that the statement is plainly figurative. But again, they say, nature does not allow a virgin to be a mother. Yet the prophet must be believed. And rightly so. For he asked for belief in an incredible thing by saying that it was to be a sign. Therefore he says, “A sign shall be given to you. Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son.” But a sign from God would not appear to be a sign unless it consisted in some astonishing novelty. In a word, if, when you are eager to cast people down from belief in this divine prophecy, or to turn aside those who are simple, you dare to lie as if the Scripture said that not a virgin, but a young female, was to conceive and bear, you are refuted even by this fact: an everyday event, namely the pregnancy and childbirth of a young female, cannot possibly seem to be any sign. Therefore, the setting before us of a virgin mother is rightly believed to be a sign, but not equally so an infant warrior. For in that case the question of a sign would not come up again. Once the sign of a new kind of birth has been granted, the next step after the sign is that a different ordering of the infant is announced, namely, that he is to eat honey and butter. Nor is that, of course, a sign. It belongs naturally to infancy. But that he is to receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria in opposition to the king of the Assyrians, this is a wondrous sign. Keep within the limit of the infant’s age, and ask into the meaning of the prophecy. No, rather, give back to truth what you are unwilling to credit her with, and the prophecy becomes clear by the relation of its fulfillment. Let those Eastern magi be believed, enriching the infancy of Christ with gold and incense as to a king, and then the infant received the power of Damascus without battle and without arms. For besides the fact that everyone knows that the power, that is, the strength, of the East usually abounds in gold and perfumes, it is certain that the divine Scriptures also regard gold as the power of other nations, as it says through Zechariah: “And Judah keeps guard at Jerusalem, and shall gather all the strength of the surrounding peoples, gold and silver.” David also says of this gift of gold, “And to Him shall be given of the gold of Arabia”; and again, “The kings of the Arabs and Saba shall bring Him gifts.” For on the one hand, the East generally held the magi to be kings. On the other hand, Damascus used formerly to be counted as belonging to Arabia before it was transferred into Syrophoenicia when the Syrias were divided. Christ then received its power by receiving its signs, namely gold and perfumes. Moreover, He received the spoils of Samaria by receiving the magi themselves. When they recognized Him, honored Him with gifts, and adored Him on bended knee as Lord and King, on the evidence of the star that guided them and pointed Him out, they became the spoils of Samaria—that is, of idolatry—by believing in Christ. For Scripture used the name of Samaria to mean idolatry, since Samaria was dishonored because of idolatry. For at that time she had revolted from God under King Jeroboam. For this too is no new thing in the divine Scriptures, to use a transferred name figuratively on the basis of likeness in sins. So it calls your rulers “rulers of Sodom,” and your people “the people of Gomorrah,” in Isaiah 1:10, although those cities had long since perished. And elsewhere it says through a prophet to the people of Israel, “Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite,” though they were not begotten from that race, but were called their sons because of their likeness in impiety. Yet long before, God had called them His own sons through Isaiah the prophet: “I have begotten and exalted sons.” In the same way, Egypt in that prophet is sometimes understood to mean the whole world because of superstition and curse. So too, in our own John, Babylon is a figure of the city Rome, because it is likewise great, proud in its rule, and triumphant over the saints. In this way, therefore, Scripture also gave the magi the name of Samaritans, stripped of what they had shared with the Samaritans, as we have said, namely idolatry in opposition to the Lord. It also adds, “in opposition to the king of the Assyrians,” that is, in opposition to the devil, who to this very hour thinks himself to be reigning, if he drives the saints away from the religion of God.

MOREOVER: our interpretation is supported by the fact that elsewhere too the Scriptures describe Christ as a warrior, as we can gather from the names of certain weapons and similar words. But when the other meanings are compared, the Jews will be proved wrong. David says, "Gird your sword upon your thigh." But what do you read above this about Christ? "You are beautiful beyond the sons of men; grace is poured out on your lips." But it is very absurd if he was praising the beauty of one and the grace of his lips while at the same time arming him for war with a sword. Then he goes on to say, "Stretch out, prosper, advance, and reign!" And he adds, "because of your lenity and justice." For who uses a sword without practicing the opposites of lenity and justice, that is, deceit, harshness, and injustice, which naturally belong to battles? Let us see, then, whether a sword that has a different action is not a different kind of sword. That is, the divine Word of God, sharpened on both edges by the two Testaments, the ancient law and the new law, and sharpened by the fairness of its own wisdom, rendering to each person according to his own action. Therefore it was fitting for the Christ of God to be described beforehand in the Psalms, without military deeds, with the figurative sword of the word of God. To this sword the beauty spoken of and the grace of the lips fit well. With this sword He was then girded upon the thigh, in David's sight, when He was announced as about to come to earth in obedience to the decree of God the Father. "The greatness of your right hand," he says, "shall guide you"—that is, the power of the spiritual grace from which the recognition of Christ is drawn. "Your arrows," he says, "are sharp"—that is, God's precepts flying everywhere, threatening to lay open every heart and bringing compunction and piercing to every conscience. "Peoples shall fall beneath you"—certainly in adoration. Thus Christ is mighty in war and bears weapons. Thus He will receive spoils, not from Samaria only, but from all nations also. Admit that His spoils are figurative, since you have learned that His weapons are allegorical. And so, up to this point, the Christ who has come was not a warrior, because Isaiah did not predict Him as such.

BUT IF THE CHRIST: they say, who is believed to be coming is not called Jesus, why is He who has come called Jesus Christ? Well, each name will meet in the Christ of God. In Him the name Jesus also is found. Learn the usual character of your error. When a successor to Moses was being appointed, Oshea the son of Nun was certainly changed from his former name, and began to be called Jesus. Certainly, you say. This, first of all, we declare to have been a figure of the future. For Jesus Christ was to bring in the second people, which is made up of us from the nations, who before now were left deserted in the world, into the land of promise flowing with milk and honey. That is, into the possession of eternal life, than which nothing is sweeter. And this had to happen not through Moses, that is, not through the discipline of the Law, but through Joshua, that is, through the grace of the new law, after our circumcision with a knife of rock, that is, with Christ's precepts, for Christ is in many ways and figures foretold as a rock. Therefore the man who was being prepared to act as an image of this sacrament was inaugurated under the figure of the Lord's name, so as to be named Jesus. For He who always spoke to Moses was the Son of God Himself. He also was always seen. Numbers 12:5-8. For no one ever saw God the Father and lived. And so it is agreed that the Son of God Himself spoke to Moses and said to the people, "Behold, I send My angel before your face"—that is, the people's—"to guard you on the journey, and to bring you into the land which I have prepared for you. Attend to him, and do not be disobedient to him; for he has not escaped your notice, since My name is upon him." Exodus 23:20-21. For Joshua, not Moses, was to bring the people into the land of promise. Now He called him an angel because of the greatness of the mighty deeds which he was to accomplish, and Joshua the son of Nun did accomplish them, as you yourselves read. He also called him this because of his office as a prophet announcing the divine will. In the same way, the Spirit, speaking in the person of the Father, also calls John, the forerunner of Christ, a future angel through the prophet: "Behold, I send My angel before Your face"—that is, Christ's—"who shall prepare Your way before You." Nor is it a new practice for the Holy Spirit to call those angels whom God has appointed as ministers of His power. The same John is called not only an angel of Christ, but also a lamp shining before Christ. For David foretells, "I have prepared the lamp for My Christ," and Christ Himself, when He came to fulfill the prophets, called him this to the Jews. "He was," He says, "the burning and shining lamp." For he not only prepared His ways in the desert, but also, by pointing out the Lamb of God, gave light to the minds of men by his proclamation, so that they understood Him to be that Lamb whom Moses used to announce as destined to suffer. Thus too the son of Nun was called Joshua because of the future mystery of his name. For that name, He who spoke with Moses confirmed as His own, the same name which He Himself had given him, because He had commanded that from there on he should be called not angel nor Oshea, but Joshua. Thus, therefore, each name belongs to the Christ of God, that He should be called Jesus as well as Christ.

THE PROPHET ALSO CLEARLY SAYS IN LATER PASSAGES THAT THE VIRGIN FROM WHOM CHRIST HAD TO BE BORN: as we mentioned above, had to trace her family line from the seed of David. “And a rod shall be born from the root of Jesse,” he says. This rod is Mary. “And a flower shall rise from his root, and the Spirit of God shall rest upon Him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of discernment and piety, the spirit of counsel and truth. The spirit of the fear of God shall fill Him.” For this complete fullness of spiritual gifts belonged to no human being except Christ. He is compared to a flower because of His glory and because of His grace. But He is said to come from the root of Jesse, from where His origin is to be traced, that is, through Mary. For He was from the native soil of Bethlehem and from the house of David, just as Mary is recorded in the Roman census, and from her Christ is born.

I ASK AGAIN: if the one whom the prophets always foretold would come from the line of Jesse was also going to show complete humility, patience, and calmness, has He come? In the same way as in the earlier case, the man who is shown to have that character will be the very Christ who has come. For the prophet says of Him, "A man given over to affliction, and knowing how to bear weakness." He was led like a sheep for sacrifice, and like a lamb before the one who shears it, He did not open His mouth. If He neither argued nor cried out, and His voice was not heard outside; if He did not crush the bruised reed, that is, Israel's faith; if He did not quench the smoking flax, that is, the brief glow of the Gentiles, but made it shine more by the rising of His own light; then He can be no other than the one who was foretold. Therefore, the actions of the Christ who has come must be examined by placing them side by side with the rule of the Scriptures. For, if I am not mistaken, we find Him marked by a twofold work: preaching and power. Now let each point be dealt with briefly. So then, let us follow the order we have set down, showing that Christ was announced as a preacher, as through Isaiah: "Cry out," he says, "with strength, and do not hold back. Lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their crimes, and to the house of Jacob their sins. Day by day they seek me, and they desire to learn my ways, like a people that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the judgment of God," and so on. Also, He was to do works of power from the Father: "Behold, our God will bring retributive judgment. He Himself will come and save us. Then the weak will be healed, and the eyes of the blind will see, and the ears of the deaf will hear, and the tongues of the mute will be loosed, and the lame will leap like a deer," and so on. Even you do not deny that Christ did these works, since you used to say that you did not stone Him because of the works, but because He did them on the Sabbaths.

CONCERNING THE LAST STEP OF HIS PASSION: you plainly raise a doubt. You claim that the passion of the cross was not predicted with reference to Christ. You also argue that it is not believable that God would expose His own Son to that kind of death, because He Himself said, “Cursed is everyone who shall have hung on a tree.” But the reason of the matter already explains the meaning of this curse. For He says in Deuteronomy: “If, moreover, a man has been involved in some sin bringing the judgment of death, and shall die, and you shall suspend him on a tree, his body shall not remain on the tree, but you shall bury him with burial on that very day; because cursed by God is everyone who shall have been suspended on a tree; and you shall not defile the land which the Lord your God shall give you for your lot.” Therefore, He did not pronounce Christ cursed by assigning Him to this passion. Rather, He made a distinction: whoever had incurred the judgment of death in some sin, and died suspended on a tree, that man would be cursed by God, because his own sins were the cause of his suspension on the tree. On the other hand, Christ, who spoke no guile from His mouth, and who showed all righteousness and humility, was not exposed to that kind of death for His own deserts, as we have recorded above was predicted of Him. Rather, He was exposed to it so that what the prophets predicted would come upon Him through your means might be fulfilled. Just as in the Psalms, the Spirit of Christ Himself was already singing and saying, “They were repaying me evil for good,” Psalm 35:12. And, “What I had not seized I was then paying in full,” Psalm 69:4. “They exterminated my hands and feet,” Psalm 22:16. And, “They put into my drink gall, and in my thirst they slaked me with vinegar.” “Upon my vesture they did cast the lot.” Just as the other outrages which you were to commit against Him were foretold. He actually and thoroughly suffered all these things. He suffered them not for any evil action of His own, but so that the Scriptures from the mouth of the prophets might be fulfilled.

AND OF COURSE: it was fitting that the mystery of the passion itself should be set forth in prophetic figures. And the more unbelievable that mystery was, the more likely it was to become a stumbling block if it had been predicted plainly. And the more magnificent it was, the more it needed to be foreshadowed, so that the difficulty of understanding it might seek help from the grace of God.

ACCORDINGLY: to begin with, Isaac, when he was led by his father as a sacrifice and was carrying his own wood, was even then pointing to Christ's death. He was given over as a sacrifice by the Father, just as Christ was, and he carried the wood of his own suffering, just as Christ did.

JOSEPH: again, was himself made a figure of Christ in this one point alone—to name no more, so that I may not delay my own course. He suffered persecution at the hands of his brothers, and was sold into Egypt because of the favor of God, just as Christ was sold by Israel—and therefore, according to the flesh, by His brothers, Romans 9:5—when He is betrayed by Judas. For Joseph is also blessed by his father in this form: "His glory is that of a bull; his horns, the horns of a unicorn; on them he will toss nations alike to the very extremity of the earth." Of course, no one-horned rhinoceros was meant there, nor any two-horned minotaur. But Christ was signified in it: a bull, because of each of His two characters—to some fierce, as Judge; to others gentle, as Saviour. His horns were the extremities of the cross. For even in a ship's yard—which is part of a cross—this is the name by which the extremities are called, while the central pole of the mast is a unicorn. In fact, by this power of the cross, and horned in this manner, He now, on the one hand, tosses all nations through faith, carrying them away from earth to heaven; and one day, on the other hand, He will toss them through judgment, casting them down from heaven to earth.

HE ALSO WILL BE THE BULL ELSEWHERE IN THE SAME SCRIPTURE: When Jacob spoke a blessing over Simeon and Levi, he prophesied about the scribes and Pharisees, for they trace their origin from them. For his blessing is spiritually understood in this way: Simeon and Levi carried iniquity to completion through their sect; by this, of course, they persecuted Christ. "Let not my soul enter into their counsel, and let not my heart rest upon their assembly. Because in their anger they killed men"—that is, prophets—"and in their desire they hamstrung a bull"—that is, Christ. After killing the prophets, they killed Him, and spent their cruelty by piercing His sinews with nails. Otherwise it is pointless if, after the murder they had already committed, he rebukes others, and not them, for butchery.

BUT NOW: to come to Moses: why, I ask, when Joshua was fighting against Amalek, did Moses pray only while sitting with his hands stretched out? In circumstances so serious, surely he should rather have supported his prayer by bending his knees, striking his breast with his hands, and lying face down on the ground. Was it not because, there where the name of the Lord Jesus was being spoken of—since He was destined one day to fight alone against the devil—the figure of the cross was also necessary, that figure through which Jesus was to win the victory? Again, why did this same Moses, after forbidding any likeness of anything in Exodus 20:4, set up a bronze serpent on a pole, hanging there as a healing sign for Israel, when after their idolatry they were being destroyed by serpents? Was it not because in this case he was displaying the Lord's cross, on which the serpent, the devil, was made a public spectacle, and because for everyone wounded by such snakes—that is, his angels—salvation was accomplished when they turned their attention away from the sinfulness of sins to the sacraments of Christ's cross? For whoever then looked at that cross was freed from the bite of the serpents.

COME NOW: if you have read in the prophet’s words in the Psalms, “God has reigned from the tree,” I am waiting to hear what you understand by that. I do not want you to think that perhaps it means some king who is a carpenter, and not Christ, who has reigned from that time onward when He overcame the death that followed from His suffering on the tree.

IN THE SAME WAY: Isaiah says again, “For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us.” What new thing is this, unless he is speaking about the Son of God? And this one is born to us, and the beginning of His rule has been placed on His shoulder. What king in the world wears the sign of his power on his shoulder, instead of wearing either a crown on his head, or holding a scepter in his hand, or bearing some mark of royal clothing? But Christ Jesus, the new King of all ages, alone lifted up on His shoulder His own new glory, power, and greatness—that is, the cross. So, according to the earlier prophecy, the Lord might from now on reign from the tree. For it is also about this tree that God gives a hint through Jeremiah, that you would say, “Come, let us put wood into his bread, and let us destroy him out of the land of the living; and his name shall be remembered no more.” Of course, that wood was put on His body. For Christ has made this clear by calling His body bread, and in earlier days the prophet announced that body under the name of bread. If you still want prophecies about the Lord’s cross, Psalm 22 will finally be enough to satisfy you, since it contains the whole suffering of Christ, and since He, even at that early time, sings of His own glory. “They dug my hands and feet,” He says, which is the special cruelty of the cross. And again, when He asks the Father for help, He says, “Save me out of the mouth of the lion”—that is, out of death—“and my humility from the horns of the unicorns,” Psalm 22:21, that is, from the ends of the cross, as we have shown above. Neither David himself, nor any of the kings of the Jews, suffered this cross. So you may not think that the suffering of some other particular man is being foretold here, rather than the suffering of Him who alone was so openly crucified by the People.

NOW: if the hardness of your heart keeps on rejecting and mocking all these explanations, we will prove that it is enough that the death of the Christ was prophesied. Then, since the kind of death was not specified, it can be understood that it took place by the cross, and that the suffering of the cross must be assigned to no one but Him whose death was constantly being foretold. For I want to show, in one statement of Isaiah, His death, suffering, and burial. “By the crimes of my people He was led to death; and I will give the evil for His burial, and the rich for His death, because He did no wickedness, nor was deceit found in His mouth; and God willed to redeem His soul from death,” and so on. Again he says, “His burial has been taken away from the midst.” For He would not have been buried unless He had died, and His burial would not have been taken away from the midst except through His resurrection. Finally, he adds, “Therefore He shall have many for an inheritance, and He shall divide the spoils of many.” Who else will do this but He who was born, as we have shown above? It is in return for the fact that His soul was handed over to death. For when the reason for the favor given to Him is shown—in return, that is, for the wrong of a death that had to be repaid—it is also shown that He, who was appointed to receive these rewards because of death, was to receive them after death, of course after the resurrection. As for what happened at His suffering, when midday grew dark, the prophet Amos announces it, saying, “And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, the sun shall set at midday, and the day of light shall grow dark over the land. And I will turn your feast days into grief, and all your songs into lamentation. And I will put sackcloth on your loins, and baldness on every head. And I will make the grief like grief for a beloved son, and those who are with him like a day of mourning.” Moses also prophesied that you would do this at the beginning of the first month of your new year, when he foretold that the whole assembly of the sons of Israel would kill a lamb at evening and eat this solemn sacrifice of that day, that is, of the Passover of unleavened bread, with bitterness. And he added that it was the Passover of the Lord, that is, the suffering of Christ. This prediction also was fulfilled in this way: on the first day of unleavened bread you killed Christ, 1 Corinthians 5:7, and, so that the prophecies might be fulfilled, the day hurried toward evening—that is, toward darkness, which came at midday. And so God turned your feast days into grief, and your songs into lamentation. For after the suffering of Christ, captivity and dispersion came upon you, as had been foretold before by the Holy Spirit.

FOR AGAIN: it is because of these sins of yours that Ezekiel announces the ruin that is about to come upon you. And this is not only in this age—a ruin that has already happened—but also on the day of retribution, Isaiah 61:2, which will come afterward. From that ruin no one will be set free except the one who has been marked on the forehead with the passion of the Christ whom you rejected. For it is written: "And the Lord said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel do, each one of them in darkness, each in a hidden room? For they have said, The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the earth. And He said to me, Turn again, and you shall see greater enormities that these do. And He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the house of the Lord that faces north; and behold, there were women sitting and mourning for Thammuz. And the Lord said to me, Son of man, have you seen? Is it a small thing for the house of Judah to do the enormities they have done? Yet you are about to see greater passions of theirs. And He brought me into the inner part of the house of the Lord; and behold, at the entrance of the house of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men. They had turned their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; they were worshiping the sun. And He said to me, Do you see, son of man? Are such deeds trifles to the house of Judah, that they should do the enormities these have done? Because they have filled up the measure of their impieties, and behold, they are themselves, as it were, making grimaces. I will act in my indignation. My eye will not spare, nor will I pity. They will cry in my ears with a loud voice, and I will not hear them; no, I will not pity. And He cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, The vengeance of this city is near; and each one had weapons of destruction in his hand. And behold, six men were coming by the way of the upper gate that faces north, and each one had his double axe of scattering in his hand; and one man in the middle of them was clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, Revelation 1:13, and with a sapphire belt around his waist. And they entered and stood beside the bronze altar. And the glory of the God of Israel, which was over the house in its open court, rose up from the cherubim; and the Lord called the man clothed with the garment reaching to the feet, who had the belt on his waist, and said to him, Pass through the midst of Jerusalem, and write the sign Tau on the foreheads of the men who groan and grieve over all the enormities done in its midst. And while this was being done, He said to one who heard, Go after him through the city and strike. Do not let your eye spare, and do not pity elder or youth or virgin; and kill all the little ones and women, so that they may be completely wiped away. But do not go near anyone on whom is the sign Tau; and begin with my saints." Now the mystery of this sign was foretold in various ways, a sign in which the foundation of life was laid beforehand for mankind, and a sign in which the Jews were not going to believe. Just as Moses had long before kept announcing in Exodus, saying, "You shall be driven out from the land into which you shall enter; and among those nations you shall not be able to rest. And there shall be no firmness for the step of your foot. And God shall give you a weary heart, a fainting soul, and failing eyes that do not see. And your life shall hang on the tree before your eyes; and you shall not trust your life."

AND SO: since prophecy was fulfilled through His coming—that is, through His birth, which we mentioned above, and His passion, which we have clearly explained—that is also why Daniel said, "Vision and prophet were sealed." This is because Christ is the seal of all the prophets, fulfilling everything that had long before been announced concerning Him. For since His coming and His own passion, there is no longer vision or prophet. Therefore he says most emphatically that His coming seals vision and prophecy. And so, by showing the number of the years, and the time of the sixty-two and a half fulfilled weeks, we have proved that Christ came at that appointed time—that is, that He was born. And by showing the time of the seven and a half weeks, which are divided so as to be cut off from the earlier weeks, within which times we have shown that Christ suffered, and by the resulting completion of the seventy weeks and the destruction of the city, we have proved that sacrifice and anointing then ceased.

FOR NOW: it is enough on these points that we have traced the course of Christ along the appointed path. By this, it is proved that He is the One He was always announced to be. This is shown by the agreement of the Scriptures, which has enabled us to speak plainly against the Jews, on the basis of the prior judgment of the greater number. So let them not question or deny the writings we bring forward. The fact that the things foretold as destined to happen after Christ are now seen to be fulfilled should make it impossible for them to deny that these writings are equal to the divine Scriptures. Otherwise, unless He had come after whom the things that used to be announced had to be accomplished, how could the things that have been completed be proved?

LOOK AT ALL THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD: coming from then on out of the whirlpool of human error to the Lord God the Creator and to His Christ. And if you dare to deny that this was prophesied, the Father's promise in the Psalms immediately confronts you. It says, "You are My Son; today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the Gentiles as Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as Your possession." For you will not be able to say that this son is David rather than Christ, or that the ends of the earth were promised to David rather than to Christ. David ruled only within the one land of Judea, but Christ has already won over the whole world by the faith of His gospel. As He says through Isaiah, "Behold, I have given You as a covenant of My family, as a light of the Gentiles, so that You may open the eyes of the blind"—meaning, of course, those who go astray—"to loosen the bonds of the bound"—that is, to free them from sins—"and from the prison house"—that is, from death—"those who sit in darkness"—that is, in ignorance. And if these blessings come through Christ, then they were not prophesied about anyone other than Him, through whom we see that they have been fulfilled.

THEREFORE: since the sons of Israel claim that we are in error for accepting the Christ who has already come, let us make our case against them from the Scriptures themselves. Our point is that the Christ foretold in prophecy has come. Indeed, by the times given in Daniel's prophecy, we have proved that the Christ who was announced has already come. Now He had to be born in Bethlehem of Judah. For this is what is written in the prophet: "And you, Bethlehem, are not the least among the leaders of Judah; for out of you shall come a Leader who shall feed My people Israel." But if He has not yet been born, who was that leader who was announced as coming from the tribe of Judah, out of Bethlehem? For He must come from the tribe of Judah and from Bethlehem. But we see that now no one of the race of Israel remains in Bethlehem. This has been so ever since the order was given forbidding any of the Jews to remain within the borders of that district. This also fulfilled the prophetic word completely: "Your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire"—that is, he is foretelling what would happen to them in time of war—"strangers shall eat up your region before your eyes, and it shall be desolate and overthrown by foreign peoples." And in another place the prophet says this: "The King in His glory you shall see"—that is, Christ, doing mighty works in the glory of God the Father—"and your eyes shall see the land from afar," Isaiah 33:17. That is what you do, because since the capture of Jerusalem you are forbidden, as the reward of your deserts, to enter your land. You are only allowed to see it from afar with your eyes. "Your soul," he says, "shall meditate terror," Isaiah 33:18, namely, at the time when they suffered their own destruction. How, then, will a leader be born from Judea, and how will he come from Bethlehem, as the sacred writings of the prophets plainly announce, since to this day none at all of Israel is left there, from whose stock Christ could be born?

NOW: if, as the Jews say, He has not yet come, then when He does begin to come, from where will He be anointed? For the Law commanded that, during captivity, it was not lawful for the anointing oil of the royal chrism to be prepared, Exodus 30:22-33. But if there is no longer any anointing there, as Daniel prophesied, for he says, "Anointing shall be exterminated," then it follows that they no longer have it, because they also no longer have a temple, where the horn was kept from which kings used to be anointed. If, then, there is no anointing, from where will the leader who is to be born in Bethlehem be anointed? Or how will he come from Bethlehem, since none at all of the seed of Israel exists in Bethlehem?

NOW: for a second time, let us show that Christ has already come, as the prophets foretold, and has suffered, and has already been received back in heaven, and from there is to come just as the prophecies foretold. For after His coming, we read in Daniel that the city itself had to be exterminated, and we recognize that this has happened. For the Scripture says that the city and the holy place are exterminated together with the Leader, in Daniel 9:26. Undoubtedly this is that Leader who was to come forth from Bethlehem and from the tribe of Judah. From this again it is clear that the city had to be exterminated at the time when its Leader had to suffer in it, as the Scriptures of the prophets foretold, who say, "I have stretched out My hands the whole day to a people contumacious and gainsaying Me, who walk in a way not good, but after their own sins." And in the Psalms, David says, "They exterminated my hands and feet. They counted all my bones. They themselves, moreover, looked at me and saw me, and in my thirst gave me vinegar to drink." David did not suffer these things, so he cannot rightly seem to have spoken of himself. Rather, it was Christ who was crucified. Moreover, hands and feet are not exterminated except in the case of Him who is suspended on a tree. Therefore David also said that the Lord would reign from the tree. For elsewhere too, the prophet foretells the fruit of this tree, saying, "The earth has given her blessings"—meaning, of course, that virgin earth, not yet watered by rains nor made fruitful by showers, out of which man was first formed long ago, out of which now Christ according to the flesh has been born of a virgin. And he says, "The tree has brought his fruit"—not that tree in paradise which brought death to the first-formed, but the tree of the passion of Christ, from which life hung before you, though you did not believe. For this tree, in a mystery, was long ago what Moses used to sweeten the bitter water. From there the People, who were perishing from thirst in the desert, drank and revived, just as we do. We were drawn out from the calamities of heathendom, in which we were remaining, perishing with thirst, that is, deprived of the divine word. By drinking, through the faith which is on Him, the baptismal water of the tree of the passion of Christ, we have revived. It is from this faith that Israel has fallen away, as Jeremiah foretold when he says, "Send, and ask exceedingly whether such things have been done, whether nations will change their gods—and these are not gods! But My People has changed their glory, from which no profit shall come to them. The heaven grew pale at this"—and when did it grow pale? Undoubtedly when Christ suffered—"and shuddered," he says, "most exceedingly; and the sun grew dark at midday." And when did it shudder most exceedingly except at the passion of Christ, when the earth also trembled to its center, and the veil of the temple was torn, and the tombs were burst open? "Because My People has done these two evils: they have completely forsaken Me," He says, "the fount of water of life, and they have dug for themselves worn-out tanks, which will not be able to contain water." Undoubtedly, by not receiving Christ, the fount of water of life, they began to have worn-out tanks, that is, synagogues for the use of the dispersions of the Gentiles, in which the Holy Spirit no longer lingers, though in time past He was accustomed to remain in the temple before the coming of Christ, who is the true temple of God. For Isaiah had also said that they would suffer this thirst of the Divine Spirit, saying, "Behold, they who serve Me shall eat, but you shall be hungry; they who serve Me shall drink, but you shall thirst, and from general tribulation of spirit shall howl: for you shall transmit your name for a satiety to My elect, but the Lord shall slay you; but they who serve Me shall be called by a new name, which shall be blessed in the lands."

AGAIN: we read that the mystery of this tree is celebrated even in the Books of the Reigns. For when the sons of the prophets were cutting wood with axes on the bank of the Jordan River, the iron axe head flew off and sank in the water. Then Elisha the prophet came up, and the sons of the prophets asked him to bring up from the stream the iron that had sunk. So Elisha took a piece of wood and threw it into the place where the iron had gone under. At once the iron rose and floated on the surface, and the wood sank, and the sons of the prophets recovered the iron. From this they understood that Elijah's spirit had at once been given to him. What could show more clearly the mystery of this wood? It shows that the hardness of this world had sunk into the depth of error, and is set free in baptism by the wood of Christ, that is, by His passion. So what had formerly perished through the tree in Adam would be restored through the tree in Christ. And we, of course, who have succeeded the prophets and now stand in their place, endure in the world the same treatment that the prophets always suffered because of divine religion. Some people stoned them, some banished them, and even more of them they handed over to deadly slaughter. This is a fact they cannot deny.

THIS WOOD ALSO: Isaac the son of Abraham personally carried for his own sacrifice, when God had commanded that he should be made a victim to Himself. But because these were mysteries being kept for perfect fulfillment in the times of Christ, Isaac, on the one hand, with his wood, was reserved, while the ram caught by the horns in the bramble was offered. Christ, on the other hand, in His own times, carried His wood on His own shoulders, adhering to the horns of the cross, with a thorny crown around His head. For it was fitting that He should be made a sacrifice on behalf of all Gentiles. He was led as a sheep for a victim, and like a lamb voiceless before his shearer, so He did not open His mouth. For when Pilate questioned Him, He said nothing. In humility His judgment was taken away. Moreover, who shall declare His nativity? Because no human being at all was conscious of the nativity of Christ at His conception, when the Virgin Mary was found pregnant by the word of God. And because His life was to be taken from the land. Why then, after His resurrection from the dead, which was accomplished on the third day, did the heavens receive Him back? It was according to a prophecy of Hosea, spoken in this way: "Before daybreak shall they arise to Me, saying, Let us go and return to the Lord our God, because He Himself will draw us out and free us. After a space of two days, on the third day"—which is His glorious resurrection—"He received back into the heavens" Him whose nativity and passion alike the Jews have failed to acknowledge. It was from there, moreover, that the Spirit Himself had come to the Virgin. Therefore, since the Jews still contend that the Christ has not yet come, though we have proved in so many ways that He has come, let the Jews recognize their own fate. This is a fate they were constantly foretold that they would incur after the coming of the Christ, because of the impiety with which they despised and slew Him. For first, from the day when, according to the saying of Isaiah, a man cast out his abominations of gold and silver, which they made to adore with vain and hurtful rites—that is, ever since we Gentiles, with our breast doubly enlightened through Christ's truth, cast out our idols, let the Jews see it—what follows has likewise been fulfilled. For the Lord of Sabaoth has taken away among the Jews from Jerusalem, among the other things named, the wise architect also, who builds the church, God's temple, and the holy city, and the house of the Lord. For from then on God's grace stopped working among them. And the clouds were commanded not to rain a shower on the vineyard of Sorek. The clouds are heavenly benefits, which were commanded not to come to the house of Israel. For it had borne thorns, from which that house of Israel had made a crown for Christ, and not righteousness, but a clamor—the clamor by which it had forced His surrender to the cross. And so, the former gifts of grace having been withdrawn, the law and the prophets were until John, and the fishpool of Bethsaida until the coming of Christ. After that, it ceased to remove bodily infirmities from Israel in a healing way. Since, as a result of their perseverance in frenzy, the name of the Lord was through them blasphemed, as it is written: "On your account the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles." For it was from them that the infamy attached to that name began, and was spread during the time from Tiberius to Vespasian. And because they had committed these crimes, and had failed to understand that Christ was to be found in the time of their visitation, their land has been made desert, and their cities utterly burned with fire, while strangers devour their region in their sight. The daughter of Sion is left abandoned, like a watchtower in a vineyard, or like a shed in a cucumber garden. This has been so ever since the time when Israel did not know the Lord, and the People did not understand Him, but instead completely forsook, and provoked to indignation, the Holy One of Israel. So again, we find a conditional threat of the sword: "If you have been unwilling, and have not been obedient, the sword shall eat you up." Isaiah 1:20 From this we prove that the sword was Christ. By not hearing Him, they perished. He also, in the Psalm, asks the Father for their dispersion, saying, "Disperse them in Your power." And again through Isaiah He prays for their utter burning: "On My account," He says, "have these things happened to you; in anxiety shall you sleep."

SINCE IT WAS FORETOLD THAT THE JEWS WOULD SUFFER THESE DISASTERS BECAUSE OF CHRIST: and since we find that they have suffered them, and see them scattered and still living in dispersion, it is clear that these things have come upon the Jews because of Christ. The meaning of the Scriptures agrees with what has happened, and with the order of the times. Or else, if Christ has not yet come, on whose account it was foretold that they would suffer in this way, then it follows that when He has come, they will suffer in this way. But where then will there be a daughter of Zion left desolate, when she no longer exists now? Where will the cities be burned up, when they are already burned up and lie in ruins? Where will there be the dispersion of a people who are already in exile? Restore Judea to the condition that Christ is supposed to find it in; and then, if you wish, argue that some other Christ is coming.

NOW LEARN: beyond the immediate question, the key to your error. We affirm that the prophets showed two conditions of the Christ, and that they foretold two comings of His. One was in humility, of course the first, when He was to be led like a sheep to be sacrificed. And like a lamb silent before its shearer, He did not open His mouth. He was not even beautiful in appearance. For the prophet says concerning Him, “We announced Him as a little child, like a root in thirsty ground; and there was no attractiveness or glory in Him. And we saw Him, and He had no attractiveness or grace; but His appearance was without honor, lacking in comparison with the sons of men, a man given over to plague, and knowing how to bear weakness.” That is, since the Father had appointed Him to be a stone of offense, and had made Him a little lower than the angels, He calls Himself a worm and not a man, the disgrace of men and the refuse of the people. These signs of lowliness fit the first coming, just as the signs of majesty fit the second. Then He will no longer be a stone of offense or a rock of scandal, but the highest cornerstone, after being rejected on earth, taken up into heaven, and raised on high for the consummation of all things, as in Ephesians 1:10. And He will be that rock, as we must admit, which is described in Daniel as cut out of a mountain, which will crush and break to pieces the image of earthly kingdoms. About this second coming of the same Christ, Daniel said, “And behold, one like a Son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven, came to the Ancient of Days, and stood before Him; and those who stood by brought Him near to Him. And royal power was given to Him; and all nations of the earth, according to their race, and all glory, shall serve Him. His power is eternal and shall not be taken away, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed.” Then certainly He is to have an honorable appearance, and a grace not less than that of the sons of men; for then He will be beautiful beyond the sons of men. The Psalmist says, “Grace has been poured out on Your lips; therefore God has blessed You forever. Gird Your sword on Your thigh, most mighty one, in Your splendor and beauty.” And afterward the Father, after making Him a little lower than the angels, crowned Him with glory and honor and subjected all things under His feet. Then they will recognize Him whom they pierced, and they will beat their breasts, tribe by tribe, because in former days they did not know Him when He was in the humility of human condition. Jeremiah says, “He is a human being, and who will come to know Him?” because, as Isaiah says, “Who shall declare His generation?” So also in Zechariah, in His own person, and indeed in the mystery of His very name, the truest Priest of the Father, His own Christ, is pictured in a twofold dress with reference to the two comings. First, He was clothed in filthy garments, that is, in the low condition of flesh that could suffer and die, while the devil also opposed Him, namely the one who stirred up Judas the traitor, and who tempted Him even after His baptism. Next, He was stripped of those former filthy garments and clothed with a robe reaching to the feet, and with a turban and a clean mitre, that is, with the clothing of the second coming, since He is shown as having attained glory and honor. And you will not be able to say that the man shown there is the son of Jozadak, who was never clothed in filthy garments, but was always dressed in priestly clothing, and was never deprived of the priestly office. But the Jesus meant there is Christ, the Priest of God the most high Father. At His first coming He came in humility, in human form, able to suffer, even to the time of His passion. He Himself was also made, through every stage of suffering, a sacrifice for us all. After His resurrection He was clothed with a robe reaching to the feet and was called the Priest of God the Father forever. So again, I will explain the two goats that were regularly offered on the fast day. Do not they also point to each stage in the character of the Christ who has already come? They were a pair, and they were alike, because of the sameness of the Lord’s general appearance, since He is not to come in some other form, seeing that He must be recognized by those who once harmed Him. But one of them, wrapped in scarlet, amid curses and universal spitting and tearing and piercing, was cast out by the people outside the city to destruction, clearly marked with signs of Christ’s passion. For Christ too, after being clothed in a scarlet garment, and subjected to universal spitting, and afflicted with every insult, was crucified outside the city. The other, however, offered for sins and given as food only to the priests of the temple, gave clear signs of the second appearance. For after the removal of all sins, the priests of the spiritual temple, that is, of the church, were to enjoy, as it were, a spiritual public sharing of the Lord’s grace, while all others are fasting from salvation.

THEREFORE: since the prophecies of the first coming hid it under many figures and lowered it with every dishonor, while the second was foretold as open and completely worthy of God, this is what has happened: by fixing their eyes only on the one they could easily understand and believe, that is, the second coming, which is in honor and glory, they have been, not undeservedly, deceived about the more obscure one, or at least the more unworthy one, that is, the first coming. And so, to this very day, they insist that their Christ has not come, because He has not come in majesty, while they do not know that He first had to come in humility.

FOR NOW: it is enough that we have followed this far the course of Christ's path in order, by which He is proved to be the very one He was regularly announced to be. The result is that, from this harmony of the divine Scriptures, we may understand that the events once predicted as things that would happen after Christ have been accomplished as the result of a divine arrangement. For unless He had come after whom these things were to be accomplished, those events whose future happening was foretold in connection with His coming would never have come to pass. Therefore, if you see all nations from that time coming up out of the depth of human error to God the Creator and to His Christ, you cannot claim that this was not prophesied. Even if you did claim that, the Father's promise would immediately confront you, as we have already said: "You are My Son; today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the Gentiles as Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as Your possession." Nor will you be able to argue that this prophecy refers to Solomon, the son of David, rather than to Christ, the Son of God. Nor will you be able to claim that "the ends of the earth" were promised to David's son, who ruled only within the one land of Judea, rather than to Christ the Son of God, who has already enlightened the whole world with the rays of His gospel. In short, an everlasting throne suits Christ, the Son of God, more than Solomon—a temporary king who ruled over Israel alone. For at the present time nations are calling on Christ who formerly did not know Him, and peoples are now flocking together to the Christ of whom they were ignorant in former days. You cannot argue that what you see happening is still future. Either deny that these events were prophesied, though they are seen before your eyes; or deny that they have been fulfilled, though you hear them read. But if you cannot deny either point, then they have been fulfilled in Him concerning whom they were prophesied.