Demonstratio Evangelica 1 part 1/5

Behold now, before you, O divine treasure of bishops, Theodotus, holy man of God -- with God, and with him indeed, our Savior, the Word of God -- this great work is being accomplished by us, following the first Preparation for the argument of the Gospel, laboriously worked out by us in fifteen books in all. Receive then, O beloved friend, this petition, and toil together with us in your prayers, as we now at length attempt to set forth the Demonstration of the Gospel from the predictions laid up of old among the Hebrews.

How, then, and in what manner? Those men beloved of God -- you know, no doubt, those celebrated among men -- I mean Moses, and after him those who shone forth in godlike splendor, and the blessed prophets and hierophants: making use of them as witnesses, we have chosen to demonstrate from them the things that came to light long ages afterward and were accomplished through the evangelical demonstration of the Savior -- namely, that they had, by the divine Spirit, apprehended beforehand even those things which even now, in our own day, are being fulfilled before our eyes, so that they beheld, as present, things not present, and, as clearly existing, things that did not yet exist at all; and not this only, but they also foretold beforehand, in writing, to those who came after, the things that were one day to be -- so that others, from these very men, might already know and be able to recognize the future, and might daily expect the fulfillment of the oracles.

What are these things? They would be countless -- of every kind, and concerning all matters, both general and particular, concerning each individual man and concerning things universal; specifically concerning the affairs of the Hebrews, and again concerning the nations outside; such as the overthrow of cities, the changes of times and the alterations of affairs, the coming of future goods and the incursions of their opposites, the enslavements of nations, the sieges of cities, the changes and establishments of kingdoms in general, and countless other things which they proclaimed beforehand concerning what was to be in the long ages to come.

But the present occasion does not require us to set forth proof of these; rather, deferring the greater part to another time, from the truth of the things that will be set forth here, the demonstration will quietly confirm also the things that are passed over in silence.

It would now be the fitting time to say what things, from among the prophetic predictions, might well serve for our present purpose toward the evangelical demonstration.

They declared that one named Christ and Word of God -- himself God and Lord, and a certain Angel of Great Counsel -- would one day sojourn among men, and would be established as teacher of the true knowledge of God, and of piety toward the Creator of the universe, to all the nations of the whole inhabited world, both Greek and barbarian: this is precisely what the evangelical proclamation contains. And they declared that this same one would be a child, and would be called Son of Man; and from what lineage he would descend; and a certain strange manner of his bringing forth from a virgin; and -- the most paradoxical thing of all -- that, though all men from the ends of the earth hasten even to this day to see the renowned place of his birth at Bethlehem, they did not pass it over in silence but proclaimed it aloud in plain words; just as, likewise, they anticipated and pronounced beforehand, through actual facts, the very times of his manifestation, during which he precisely sojourned in this life.

And it is granted to you, once you take up the work in hand, to see with your own eyes, contained together in the aforesaid prophetic predictions, all the marvelous wonder-workings of our Savior Jesus Christ himself which are attested by the divine evangelists, together with his God-inspired and all-virtuous teachings concerning true piety.

And what wonder is it, when they also expressly proclaim the new manner of piety announced by him to all men, and the calling of his disciples, and the teaching of the new covenant?

Yes, and besides these, also the unbelief and contradictions of the Jews against him, the risings-up of rulers, the envy of teachers, the betrayal by one disciple, the slanders of enemies, the accusations of false accusers, the condemnations of judges, dishonorable insults, outrageous scourgings, abusive reviling, and, above all these, his shameful death; and, in the midst of all this, his wondrous silence, his gentleness and endurance, and how immense a patience and forbearance of wrongs he showed.

All these things, clearly and directly concerning one who would come at some future, final time, and would openly suffer such things among men, the most ancient oracles of the Hebrews set forth, through what they had apprehended beforehand -- bearing witness also to the coming-back-to-life of him who is signified, after death, from among the dead, to his manifestation to his disciples, to the impartation of the divine Spirit to them, to his ascent into the heavens, to his being enthroned in the kingdom of the Father, and to his glorious second coming again, which is to be at the consummation of the age.

In addition to all these, you shall hear laments and lamentations, as each of the prophets, in various ways, laments and bewails how many evils the Jewish nation was destined to undergo on account of its impiety toward him who had been foretold: how their kingdom, which had endured from their fathers of old down to those times, would suffer utter overthrow after their audacity against Christ; how their ancestral laws would be dissolved; how they would be deprived of their ancient worship; how they would fall from the self-governance handed down from their forefathers; how, instead of being free, they would become slaves of their enemies; how their royal capital would be burned with fire; how their venerable and holy temple would suffer conflagration and utter desolation; how, instead of its former inhabitants, their city would be resettled by foreign nations; how they would be scattered among all the nations throughout the whole inhabited world; how no longer would there be for them any hope of an end of evils, nor any breathing-space from their calamities -- things which, as they say, are plain even to the blind, since even to this day it demonstrates by actual deeds the reality of these very words, from that very first day on which, with impious hands, they laid hold against Christ, drawing upon themselves the beginning of their misfortunes.

Yet it was not, after all, the way of these divinely inspired men to fix their predictions upon gloomy matters, nor to extend their foreknowledge only as far as things grievous; but rather, turning again to what is cheerful, they proclaimed beforehand, all together, to all men, good tidings at the coming of Christ: instead of the rejection of the one nation, announcing as good news to every nation and race of men the knowledge of God, and escape from demons, deliverance from ignorance and error, the shining forth of light and piety; and how the disciples of Christ would fill the whole world with his teaching; and how their gospel would be proclaimed to all men, containing a certain new and strange manner of piety; and how churches of Christ would be established through them among all the nations; and how the Christian people, being one, would be named throughout the whole inhabited world; and how the risings-up, from time to time, of rulers and kings against the church of Christ would avail nothing toward destroying it, since it is strengthened by God.

Since so many things have been proclaimed by the theologians of the Hebrews, and their outcomes are shown plainly to all even to this day, who would not marvel at the divine inspiration of these men? And who would not confess that the teachings and doctrines of their religion and philosophy are authoritative and true, since they furnish their proof not in ornate words, nor in cleverness of speech, nor in the cunning deceits of syllogisms, but in simple and guileless teaching -- the genuineness and sincerity of whose truth is established by the very virtue and knowledge of God possessed by those divinely inspired men themselves?

Those men, then, who were able, by no human but by divine spirit, to behold from afar, countless ages beforehand, things that would come to light only in the far distant ages after -- how should they not be worthy of trust also concerning the doctrines in which they instructed their disciples? I know well and precisely that it comes readily to all who have genuinely and truly received our Savior and Lord Jesus as being truly the Christ of God -- first, that they think themselves persuaded to believe in him for no other reason than in accordance with the prophetic testimonies concerning him; and then, that they put forward this very point to all with whom they engage in argument -- yet that they are not easily able to make good this profession by demonstrations.

Whence it is necessary that I myself should come forward to this task and, with God's help, attempt, according to what has been promised, to set forth the complete undertaking of the whole Evangelical Demonstration from those very theologians who are among the Hebrews. Now this treatise of mine is composed in earnest not, as someone might say, against the Jews -- far from it, nothing could be further from the truth -- but rather, if they would but be fair-minded, on their behalf; for it establishes the case of the Christians by the testimony of the ancient predictions, and it establishes the case of the Jews by the completed fulfillment of the prophecies found among them.

This work would also be fitting for the children of the Greeks, if they would but be fair-minded, since, through the extraordinary foreknowledge of future things and the outcome of events in accordance with the predictions, it demonstrates at once the divine and truthful character of our doctrine, and at the same time stops the mouths of those who speak falsely, by means of a more logical demonstration -- a demonstration which our slanderers insist we have no share in at all, vigorously belaboring us daily, with all their might, in their polemics against us. For they say that we are able to furnish nothing by way of demonstration, but that we require those who come to us to attend to faith alone.

And so, against such slander, this present treatise would not be unreasonable for us; and moreover it will also refute the false opinions and blasphemies of the godless heresies against the divine prophets, through the harmony of the old with the new.

Now the present discourse will, for the time being, postpone the longer and more detailed interpretation of the prophetic utterances, leaving this to those who wish to examine these matters, who would be capable of expounding the manner of it; but making use as its teacher of the divine precept which says, 'sum up much in few words,' it will be zealous to emulate this, setting forth only the starting-points for the contemplation of the passages, and a clear interpretation of what is urgently needed for the matter in hand.

Enough now of preliminaries; let me now begin the demonstrations themselves. Since a great crowd of slanderers was flowing in against us, claiming that we are able to furnish no clear proof of truth by means of demonstrations, but that we require those who come to us to attend to faith alone, and that we persuade these to do nothing more than close their own eyes, like irrational beasts, and follow bravely and well, without examination, everything that is said by us -- and that it is on this account that they are given the name 'faithful,' for the sake of an irrational faith -- I have fittingly divided the slanders against us, in the Preparation, into the whole discourse, and set forth first the accusation of the polytheistic nations, who charge us with having become apostates from the gods of our fathers, and who declare, to make it worse, that we have preferred the barbarian teachings to those of the Greeks, having embraced the oracles found among the Hebrews.

And, second, the accusation of the Jews themselves, through which they too might seem to us to be reproaching us justly -- namely, that though we make use of their own Scriptures, we do not pursue a manner of life similar to theirs.

These matters being thus distinguished by us, to the first we replied, as best we could, through the Evangelical Preparation, confessing that formerly we were Greeks, and, though of other nations, had adopted Greek ways of thinking, and had been enslaved from our fathers to the polytheistic error -- yet that we were not changing by an irrational and unexamined impulse, but rather by judgment and sober reasoning, and we set forth that our zeal for the oracles of the Hebrews had come about deliberately and reasonably on our part.

But now it is the moment to fortify ourselves against the second accusation and to take up the remaining inquiry -- this being the one directed against those of the circumcision, which has not yet up to now been examined, but will now, at the fitting point, be filled out here among the matters treated in the Evangelical Demonstration.

Come then, having called upon the God of all, both Jews and Greeks, through our Savior himself, let us first examine this: what is the character of our own religion; and at the same time we shall provide the solutions to all the matters under inquiry.

It has already been said before, in the Preparation, that Christianity is neither a kind of Hellenism nor of Judaism, but bears a character of piety proper to itself -- one that is not new nor without a place, but rather very ancient indeed, and familiar and well-known to those beloved of God before the times of Moses, who were attested for their piety and righteousness. But now let us also examine what Hellenism and Judaism actually are, and consider under which of these two we might find that the God-beloved men before Moses, who were attested for their piety, are to be classed.

One might reasonably call Judaism that polity ordered according to the law of Moses, dependent upon the one God who is over all; and Hellenism, to speak summarily, the superstition, according to the ancestral customs of all the nations, directed toward a plurality of gods.

What then should we say concerning those men beloved of God before Moses and before Judaism, whom Moses himself mentions -- such as Enoch, of whom he bears witness, saying, 'And Enoch was well-pleasing to God'; and concerning Noah, of whom again he says, 'And Noah was a righteous man in his generation'; and concerning Shem and Japheth, of whom he records these things: 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem,' and, 'May God enlarge Japheth'?

And, further, besides these, concerning Abraham and Isaac and Jacob -- with whom it is also reasonable to number Job -- and whatever others there may have been who emulated a life resembling theirs: should we say that these must have been Jews, or Greeks? But surely they could not reasonably be called Jews, since the legislation of Moses had not yet been introduced into life.

For if Judaism was nothing other than the observance ordained under Moses, and Moses appeared long ages after those already mentioned, it is clear that those who were attested for piety before his times could not have been Jews. But neither is it fitting to consider them Greeks, since they were not held in the grip of polytheistic superstition.

For Abraham is said to have utterly left behind his ancestral house and kindred, and to have given heed to one God alone, whom also he confesses, saying, 'I will stretch forth to the Most High God, who created heaven and earth.'

And Jacob too is recorded by Moses as having said to his household and to all who were with him: 'Put away the strange gods that are in your midst, and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and let us make there an altar to the Lord who heard me in the day of affliction, who was with me and saved me in the way in which I went.' And they gave to Jacob the strange gods that were in their hands, and the earrings that were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that is in Shechem, and he destroyed them, until this present day.

If, then, they had established themselves as strangers to the error of idolatry, and were shown to stand outside Judaism as well, and yet, though born neither Greeks nor Jews, are attested to have become beloved of God and righteous and pious -- if indeed there are any others like them -- it is time to conceive of a third manner of piety, by which it is likely that they attained excellence.

Consider, then, whether this was not precisely the third order, standing between Judaism and Hellenism, which has been demonstrated to us -- most ancient indeed, and being the oldest of all, yet only recently proclaimed to all the nations through our Savior.

And this would be Christianity: being neither a kind of Hellenism nor of Judaism, but that which lies between them -- the most ancient commonwealth of piety, and indeed a most ancient philosophy, yet only recently legislated for all men throughout the whole inhabited world; so that one who passes over from Hellenism to Christianity does not fall into Judaism, nor again does one who withdraws from the voluntary religion of the Jews forthwith become a Greek, but rather he who removes from either order, both from Hellenism and from Judaism, passes over into the middle way -- the law and life of those men of old who were beloved of God and righteous -- which our Savior and Lord, after it had rested quiet for a long time, renewed again, in accordance with the very oracles concerning these matters uttered by Moses himself and the rest of the prophets.

In the oracles addressed to Abraham, at any rate, Moses himself records, prophetically declaring, that not the descendants of Abraham, nor the Jews of his seed, but rather all the tribes of the earth and all the nations, in a manner similar to Abraham's piety, would in future times be counted worthy of blessing from God.

And he writes as follows: 'And the Lord said to Abraham, Go forth out of your land, and out of your kindred, and out of your father's house, and come into the land which I will show you; and I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and magnify your name, and you shall be blessed; and I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse; and in you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed.' And again God said, 'Shall I hide from Abraham my servant the things that I am doing? But Abraham shall surely become a great and populous nation, and in him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.'

But how were all the nations and all the tribes of the earth to be blessed in Abraham, if they had nothing at all in common with him, either in manner of soul or in bodily kinship? For as regards kinship according to the flesh, what kinship was there with Abraham for the Scythians, let us say, or the Egyptians, or the Ethiopians, or the Indians, or the Britons, or the Spaniards? Or how were these nations, and those still more remote than these, to be blessed for the sake of a fleshly kinship with Abraham?

But it was also unlikely that all the nations would share with Abraham in a blessing according to the soul. For how could this be, when some of them were embroiled in lawless unions of mothers with sons and of fathers with daughters, others in licentious relations of males with males, others attributed piety to human sacrifices and to the deification of irrational animals, to the setting up of lifeless matter, and to superstitious devotion to wandering spirits of many kinds, others thought it good and pious to burn the aged alive, others to deliver up those dearest to them, and others even to taste of the dead?

How, then, was it possible for those advanced in so bestial a life to share in the blessing of one beloved of God, unless perhaps, having turned away from their bestiality, they were destined one day to partake of a manner of piety similar to Abraham's? For he too, being a man of another nation and a stranger to the piety which he afterward pursued, is said to have been transformed, and to have turned away from his ancestral superstition, and to have left behind house and kindred and ancestral customs and the manner of life in which he had been born and reared, and to have followed God, who also gave him the oracles that are recorded in writing.

Now if Moses, who came after Abraham and, through the legislation given by him, laid down a certain polity for the Jewish nation, had legislated such things as had also been achieved by those beloved of God before him, and such as could be applied to all nations, so that, according to the ordinance of Moses, all the tribes of the earth and all the nations could worship God -- then it would have been possible to say that the oracles foretold that those from all the nations who worshipped God and were zealous for Judaism through the legislation of Moses, and who would come to be aligned with them according to the law, would be blessed with the blessing of Abraham; and it would also have been necessary for us to keep the things ordained by Moses. But since the polity according to Moses was not suited to the rest of the nations, but to the Jews alone, and not even to all of these, but only to those who made their dwelling in the land of Judea, it was altogether necessary that a different manner should be established, distinct from the law of Moses, according to which the nations throughout the whole inhabited world, living in a manner similar to Abraham, were to share in the same blessing as he.

That the ordinance according to Moses applied, as I said, to the Jews -- and not even to all of these, for it did not apply to those living in the Dispersion, but only to those dwelling in Palestine -- will become clear to you if you reason as follows. Moses, in legislating, says somewhere: 'Three times in the year shall every male of yours appear before the Lord your God.' And still more clearly, where it was necessary for all to assemble three times in the year, he defines the place, saying: 'At three appointed times in the year shall every male of yours appear before the Lord your God, in the place which the Lord shall choose.'

You observe that he does not command them to assemble in every city, nor wherever it might happen to be, but in the place which the Lord your God shall choose; where he legislates that they gather together at the same place at three appointed times each year, and he defines the seasons at which it was necessary to assemble in the place where the rites of worship due to him were performed: first, that of Passover; second, that after fifty days, at the feast called Pentecost; and third, in the seventh month after Passover, on the Day of Atonement, on which all Jews even now still keep the fast; and he pronounces a curse upon those who do not abide by what has been legislated.

Therefore all those who were to assemble three times in the year at Jerusalem and fulfill the ordinances must surely have needed to dwell not far from Judea, but somewhere about its borders; and if it was impossible for the Jews who lived furthest from Palestine to perform what had been legislated, it is far more the case, one may say, that it applied to all the nations and to those in the ends of the earth.

But listen also to the manner in which the same lawgiver ordains that a woman who has just given birth is to come and offer sacrifices to God, speaking thus: 'And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them, Any woman who conceives and bears a male shall be unclean seven days.'

Then, after saying certain things in between, he adds: 'And when the days of her purification are fulfilled, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of a year old for a whole burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for sin, to the door of the tabernacle of witness, to the priest, and shall offer them before the Lord. And the priest shall make atonement for her, and shall cleanse her from the source of her blood. This is the law of her who bears a male or a female.'

Besides these, the same lawgiver further ordains that one who has attended a funeral or touched the dead may not be purified otherwise than by means of a certain ash of a heifer, remaining apart from his customary associations for a full seven days.

For he says: 'And it shall be to the sons of Israel and to the proselytes attached to them, in their midst, a perpetual ordinance. He who touches the dead body of any human soul shall be unclean seven days; he shall be purified on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be cleansed.'

'But if he is not purified on the third day and the seventh day, he shall not be clean. Anyone who touches the dead body of a human soul, if he dies and is not purified, has defiled the tabernacle of the Lord's witness. That soul shall be cut off from Israel, because the water of sprinkling was not sprinkled upon him; he is unclean, his uncleanness remains upon him.'

'And this is the law: if a man dies in a house, everyone who enters into the house, and all that is in the house, shall be unclean seven days. And every open vessel, which has no covering bound upon it, shall be unclean; and everyone who, in the open field, touches one slain by the sword, or a dead body, or a human bone, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. And they shall take, for the unclean person, from the ashes of the burnt purification, and shall pour it into a vessel with water, and shall take hyssop; and a clean man shall dip it and sprinkle it upon the house, and upon the vessels, and upon the souls that were there, and upon him who touched the human bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave.'

'And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day, and he shall wash his garments, and shall bathe his body in water, and shall be unclean until evening. And if a man be defiled and is not purified, that soul shall be utterly destroyed from among the congregation, because the water of sprinkling was not sprinkled upon him. And this shall be to you a perpetual ordinance.'

Having legislated these things, Moses further teaches the manner of the water of sprinkling, commanding that a red heifer without blemish be wholly burnt, and that from its ashes something be cast into the water by which those defiled by contact with a dead body must be purified.

But where the heifer must be wholly burnt, and where the woman who has given birth must offer her sacrifices, and where the rest of the ordinances must be fulfilled -- that this is not indifferently in every place, but in one single place which he himself sets apart -- is clear from what he legislates, saying: 'And it shall be, the place which the Lord your God shall choose, for his name to be called upon there -- there you shall bring all that I command you this day.'

And he next specifies this precisely, adding: 'Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your whole burnt offerings in every place that you see, but only in the place which the Lord your God shall choose for himself in one of your cities; there you shall offer your whole burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you this day.'

And he adds, saying: 'You shall not be able to eat within any of your cities the tithe of your grain and of your wine and of your oil, the firstborn of your herds and of your flocks, and all your vows which you shall vow, and your freewill offerings, and the firstfruits of your hands; but you shall eat them before the Lord your God, in the place which the Lord your God shall choose for himself -- you, and your sons, and your daughter, your manservant, and your maidservant, and the proselyte who is in your cities.'

And proceeding still further, he confirms the point where he says: 'But your holy things, if they belong to you, and your vows, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord your God shall choose for himself.'

And again: 'You shall surely tithe all the produce of your seed, the produce of your field, year by year. And you shall eat it before the Lord your God, in the place which the Lord your God shall choose, for his name to be called there.'

Then, having considered what one ought to do if the place indicated by him were far off, and the produce of the harvest great, and how one would need to convey from home to God's place the annual fruits for the whole burnt offering, he sets down concerning this the following law.