Instructions & Apologetic Poem 1

Who can rightly come to know the one God of the heavens, unless He Himself lift him from his wicked error? I was wandering, ignorant, roaming, caught by empty hope, while the frenzy of my early years bore me into the winds. I was more worthless than chaff, lighter than chaff; as though a hundred heads weighed on my shoulders, so headlong was I carried wherever I went. Not content with these things, I was at last all but made a guilty enchanter, charming malignant herbs. But thanks be to the Lord (nor does my voice suffice to render so much) who at last shone upon a wretch tottering! And having been led on, I was committed to the book of the Law, that I might there discover something; at once the lamp shone upon me. Then truly I knew God, the Lord most high in the heights, and therefore I exhort such men to withdraw from error. What better physician than one made greater by suffering of a wound?

Many indeed are brutish and unknowing, drowsy in heart; they set nothing before themselves to learn; after the manner of beasts they seek what they may plunder, or by whose blood they may live. So long as they rejoice, fattened, to live like pigs, they heap themselves up as a fine tomb, while they applaud their riches. The rich will be changed by their disdain from their once-poor garb. Surely it would suffice them, what they more readily eat. If a man is rich in wealth, let it be for himself, or worthy of Caesar: why do they prefer their own goods? The frail man regards no one. Rather let such a man share his goodness among all, to whom the Most High added riches and lofty honors. For I do not blame the riches given by the Most High, but he will be blameworthy who exalts himself above others by them. I now therefore urge alike the lofty and all the lowly, that they read diligently either these things or the rest of the Law.

Behold how brief is the life entrusted to us. Learn, therefore, why we, though born, must die, O prudent ones! Why do we die dull and stupid? What did it profit to have seen the light? If you inquire into nothing, this is to be present like the beasts. Surely the most high God set man over the fields, not the wild beast nor the cattle. Why should we make ourselves like that? The Almighty willed that man should render Him praises; therefore He Himself, the divine One, taught us things to come. That we might believe in Him, He did not merely sound it forth in word, but also demonstrated mighty deeds, with Pharaoh deceived. Not only this did He do: He also showed in the times of Noah what things He could do, since no one was seeking God. Thence, little by little, He began to be gentler, after the flood had been made, by which the earth could be filled again.

Now nearly the midpoint of the six thousand years was passing, and no one knew the Lord, and men were living loosely everywhere. But God, when He saw the hearts of men too tightly closed, addressed Abraham, whom Moses himself proclaims. He Himself gave the law to the people, Pharaoh having been slain, and He Himself foretold by him who He was, the Lord. Nor content with a single prophetic utterance does He reveal Himself, but He brought forward many witnesses who cry out concerning Him. This One, therefore, when you read the proclamations of the many seers, you will find that He took on flesh for our sake. Whence men now go astray, that the Most High ordained such things, and as it were they mock — nor do they know that they are laughed at by Him. From time to time I add how I have read the prophets beforehand, and I teach the untutored where the hope of life is to be placed.

What God did in the beginning, and in what manner He made each thing, Moses has already taught; but we teach concerning Christ. I am not a seer, nor was I bidden to be a teacher, but I unfold the things foretold by the seers to those wandering in the south winds. Therefore, you who are like me, whom the breeze swiftly carries away, seek now the harbor where there are no perils. The skilled farmer discerns the storms from afar, and before they come he gathers himself away under the caves. Be prudent; see beforehand what threatens, and before the disasters come, provide for your safety. Sloth is fit for boys, not surely for the robust: if this becomes the untrained, it does not befit those ripe in age. Indeed, O portion of mankind, unless old age be tempered, it will be just like a ham scarcely salted: it will rot.

No one subdues the rock except fire alone, for fuel: so stony men soften late, by the fire of Gehenna. We cry out in vain to the deaf, our words to be carried off by the gales, and we offer light to the blind, holding it forth without cause. The soldier stands at his post: one hears, and another shakes it off, nor receives the warnings in his heart, but, ruined, goes astray. Who, pray, is the one who deserts (be judges of these things!) — he who admonishes, or he who will not obey the word? I trust, he is not guilty who heeds the commands of Caesar; but the contrary man, proud, destroys his own life. From time to time I, who once erred first, point out what is mine — the straight way to you, who still wander empty. Yet you yourselves choose, pleasing your own judgment, whether one wishes poison, or the sweet cups of life!

Both good and evil were created in this nature, that man, after his death, might be proved who is worthy of God. Approach now, whoever you are, to know things everlasting: learn who God is, or by what name He is present! There is God Almighty, one, created from Himself, whom you will find below to be great and Himself lowly. He was placed in the Word, marked out for Himself alone, who is called Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But from the moment He decreed to compose the world with its constellations, He set in place fire, dread even to the angels themselves. These nevertheless He distributed, made of lesser power, that they might govern the heavens and the earth and the things beneath the earth. This One, therefore, not even the messengers themselves can discern, of what sort or how great He is, except that they follow His precepts.

There is an honor hidden from us and from the angels themselves; it shines back immeasurable above the heavens and without end; it is wholly golden, which is as a flaming power. There the divinity of God is so great, without known form; those are the secrets of the heavens, known to God alone. This glory of God is unique above all the angels; this is the God of eternal light, this the Spirit of the age. In His primal state, of what sort He is, is seen by none; He is transfigured, as He wills to show Himself. He presents Himself visible to the angels according to their form, and to man He becomes a man; yet otherwise God is proved by word. Therefore the form of so great a God cannot be discerned; whatever He is, He is one, alone in measureless light; where face or eyes or mouth or limbs are marked, thence in His fist to enclose the circle of the world.

Yet nevertheless, when He willed it to be known concerning Himself who He was, out of so great a divinity He made Himself able to be seen. There are those to whom He appeared in fire, speaking with a voice; He was taken up into flesh, He whom no region could contain. This God Almighty, Lord of His own creation, though He is invisible, makes Himself seen by certain ones. He who is now formed, now pours Himself out into the breezes, whose beginning nor end it is lawful to seek. This One is God always without beginning and without end, who, before He made the heaven, was borne in eternity; whatever the heaven holds, He looks out everywhere from heaven, and He penetrates the whole with His eyes and hears with His ears. To Him, therefore, it was pleasing to assume the fleshly course of the world, that the sole everlasting majesty might be exalted. For what He was before, it is now a hard matter to relate;

though it be set down in writing, let there be no concern for us about those things. Since these things which we see we cannot wholly touch, who will be able to know what lies beyond the bound of the Ocean? We see the heaven, but what is done within there it is given to no one to know, until the end of the age comes. Let it suffice only to know the promises about what is to come; let us strive toward those things eagerly, devoted with all our mind. As the bird Phoenix meditates on being reborn from death, it gives us an example that we can rise after our funerals; this above all the Almighty God persuades us to believe — that the time will come for the dead to live again;

though one be now dust, though the bared bones lie, man is restored, as he had been, who once died, and the grace of that age shall then be greater. There shall then be no grief nor tears in our body, the flesh shall receive no sword, no blister shall arise. This God shall establish, that to Him there may be the greater glory. He had first made man, that he should be eternal, but that man fell into death, the precepts neglected. On account of which God prepared such great histories to be, that He might uncover all the devil's devices. God had given that angel as a ruler upon the earth: who, while he envies man, himself, and first, perishes. Meanwhile He discerns the righteous among those very deeds, and reserves the wicked Cain for Gehenna.

In wickedness the whole human race began to be engaged, nor did they regard who was their creator. This God most high endured unworthily, and resolved to cast down nearly all created things. He is cast down, and one reads that Noah was delivered from the water, while the rest perished in the flood by heavenly wrath. Hence, as in the beginning, the earth is gradually filled again. The first crime had passed away, but another disaster clung on. Foolish men set about to build a tower beneath the stars, that through it, as it were, they might ascend the heavens. When God saw this being done under a single speech, He came down and made them speak in diverse tongues. Whom thence He scattered, set apart through the islands of the earth, that they might become nations speaking with varied speech. Then the untrained race was leading a life of savagery;

no one knew God, no one disputed about life. For that reckless one had crept in upon the untrained, through the waters of the soul; he depraved their embittered minds and by guile persuaded them to love unspeakable couplings, to live in plunder, in joy, with blood poured out. This glory the foolish pursue for a brief time; from which no pardon frees them by their saying they were seduced. If the adulterer persuades, it is your fault to follow such a one; he does not condemn you, but you of your own will condemn yourself. The untaught wandered through the deceit of the ancient foe, forgetful of the Lord, following malignant works. Lest, therefore, the robber's great pillaging should go on long, in due time He at last had mercy, taking it away. It pleased Him to converse with one out of many, that He might make a people beloved by passing over to Himself.

From him the profane began to hold that there is one God, and to become a people according to God's decrees. For Rebecca had distinguished two peoples out of herself: this one was made the first, that the other might succeed it. In Egypt the nursling first grew up in Israel; thence God cast them out with Moses as leader, through whom He Himself gave them the law on Mount Sinai, that our posterity might know the one Lord. Then He bade prophets from among them to declare that God is debased into a man by them. The Lord had brought them into the promised land, that there they might live under the law, until He Himself should come. The people, ungrateful for good things, refused to bear the yoke of the precepts, but rather, rolled back into ancient wickedness, flourished therein; nor did they ever cease: even today such are they held to be;

having set God aside, it prefers the luxury of the world. This above all the Lord compels His beloved to shun; He forewarns that they be cut off wholly from the world. If He has called them sons, let us abide in His holy things; why do we go forth outside as adulterers, following the world's pomps? The ancient seducer deceives all through such things: he sends in luxuries, by which he may destroy the sons of the Most High — to be sent to spectacles, to go to bloody shows or to those exceedingly obscene, for the chaste to learn impure things. If one had been chaste, he advances thence to the incestuous, and, pleasing and smiling, when evil joys then tempt him. In these luxuries the primal people walked, and ever departed unarmed from the law of God. To cleanse them God often sent His nurslings, that they might correct those depraved anew from the Most High.

They never were willing to receive the divine words, but by their own will they raged ever, the foolish ones. They slaughtered the righteous who unjustly reproved them, while they would not accept the bridle of heavenly discipline. They saw Isaiah asunder, they stoned Jeremiah, the haughty; they beheaded John, they slew Zechariah at the altars. And He Himself came, who had been foretold by them, and suffers, as He willed, under our likeness. In whose death all prophecy was fulfilled. Daniel had said that this One was to be the last of the prophets. He was the one for whose sake the seers sang of the trumpet, who would come into His own, whom His own would deny. Improvident always and stiff-necked, kicking back, while they spurn the form, they lose the sacraments of the law.

Neither did His righteousness, nor the lowly flesh born, break them, nor His so great goodness or care for the sick from a word. O holy religion, O majesty so worthy of veneration, whose healing thus prospered upon the earth! He cut nothing with iron, He cured with no plaster, but without torment healed at once by His own word. Seeing such things the Jews were troubled in mind, who, led rather by envy, were caught in the zeal of malice, not regarding the buried sayings of the prophets, that such a man should come who would scatter them. Until the Lord should come, the prophets sang; from the time He came, prophecy fell silent to the Jews. After whom they came into exile with hardened heart, nor even now do they discern why they have suffered such things.

It had been foretold to them by the prophet Isaiah, and likewise by Daniel, that the land would perish; yet not before the leader of the city should hang upon the wood within it, then afterward it would become desolate. Suddenly what glory shone upon the nation, that there should be a people, a people which was not before! Was not Esau, beloved by his father, astounded that the younger brother should bear off the birthright? So neither could the synagogue recognize the time, when and by what leader it would fall from its own privilege; just as it was written, that the bird knows its own seasons, 'for this people did not understand that I was present.' The time came that the very ruler of heaven should come: according to the scriptures He was not reckoned by them. Foreknowing this, the Lord, as one who knows all things;

therefore through the mouths of the prophets He foretold these things. The exceedingly stiff-necked and ever-rebellious nation, while it claimed primacy for itself, has had its cause cut off. Into their courses He set the Gentiles to be foremost; He had said this before: 'The nations shall hope in Him.' For He Himself is the stone set in the foundations of Zion; whoever should believe in Him would have eternal life. This Holy of Holies Daniel marks out as anointed, and the royal chrism to be cut off after Him. David said it, that the silent one would be pierced with nails: 'They dug,' he says, 'my hands and my feet.' Solomon too so openly prophesies of Him, that the Jews would say, 'Let us slay the just one!' Jeremiah figuratively shows the cross with as many words: 'Come, let us put wood into His bread!' they say.

But their own leader Moses proclaims to them: 'Before your eyes shall hang life, slain.' Here the Father came in the Son, the one God everywhere: nor was He called Father, unless the Son had been begotten. For He did not leave heaven, that He might appear on earth, but, as He had disposed, His majesty was seen on earth. Out of His own power He caused Himself to be born in the flesh ... (gap) ... though it be allowed to make a single fringe. Now the flesh was God, in which the power of God was working. What of this, that the prophets sing the invisible One was to be seen, that so great a brightness should become a man also for our sake? Nor would our people have leaped forth into the new law, had not the Almighty ordained beforehand concerning us.

This was the Almighty, in whose name the nations should altogether believe, as the prophet Isaiah said: 'A man shall arise in Israel from the root of Jesse; in Him the Gentiles shall hope, by whose sign they are guarded.' And another said that He is a witness throughout the world, that He, the very prince, would be made manifest to the nations. In the psalms it is sung: 'The Lord has reigned from the tree; let the earth exult, let the many islands rejoice.' So too the patriarch Jacob: a true blessing appeared upon the nations; 'this shall be the hope of the nations,' he says. Under heaven there is no other name set forth but Christ's, in whose name the nations everywhere have believed. We are not thus persuaded to believe for the sake of the time of suffering, but for the sake of the future time, living in the eternal.

This is the hope we are to hope for: to enjoy the everlasting, not these things which, frail, quickly change our joys. Though riches be present before the eyes, splendidly to be enjoyed, you are shut out from them, by a fleeting death set in their stead; or if you persevere, you yourself shudder in living; or if your health be bad, of what use to you is life? It is all torment, in which we live under this age; hence indeed our hope is to be sought in the future. This God exhorts, this the law, this the passion of Christ — that we believe we shall rise again in the new world. So the law of God cries out: when the Most High should become lowly, hell should yield, that Adam might be lifted from death. The Lord descended into the tomb, having pity on His own creature, and thus through hidden things He emptied out the strong powers of death.

The Lord stole upon the ancient brigand in disguise, and willed to suffer, that He might the more utterly lay him low. That foe, indeed, bold and ever savage as an enemy, while he hoped to rage against a man, was conquered by the Most High. By the very means through which the wicked one had once cast man down into death, by that same means he was vanquished; and thence life came forth for us. Adam, when he had tasted the apple, was bidden to die and passed away; and from his sin we all alike die likewise. But again the Lord said: 'If a man shall take of the tree of life, let him live for ever in honour.' Death was in a tree, and life lay hidden in a tree, on which God the Lord hung, the restorer of our life. The Lord had foretold that this should be the tree of life, so that whoever shall believe in Him, it is as though he took from it.

He takes and tastes sweetly the commands of the Most High God, and departs, since he rises again the stronger, freed from death. Whoever believes in Christ tastes of the tree of life, on which the Lord was hung, as Moses foretold. Isaiah declares Him to be lowly and utterly cast down, as though He bore the form of a servant: 'And we saw Him, and He had no comely form, a man laid low in affliction, knowing how to bear all things.' He grieves for us and bears away our sins, and for our crime God delivered Him up. He, when He was tormented, kept silence like a lamb at the altar. This One was now no longer a man, but God in flesh for us; which is plainly evident, for this was the rising of the name of God, a name now held glorious among the nations.

This Malachi the prophet sings, who is himself also a messenger, when he rebukes the sacrifices of the Jews, saying: 'Your sacrifice shall not be accepted by Me, but in every place the nations offer to My name, among whom My name is exalted as excellent, who offer purely to My name without blood.' For He Himself was that lowly One, hidden under a great name, who concerning Himself cries out through the mouths of the prophets: 'I am not stubborn,' He says, 'nor do I contradict the one who harms me; I have set my back also to the scourges to be smitten, and offered my cheeks to be struck by wicked hands, nor did I turn away my face from their spittle.' Folly came upon many, that God should suffer such things, that the Maker of the world should be proclaimed crucified.

Thus it pleased Him (using no one's counsel, nor could another do it) thus to come for us. He devised death, while He was the envious enemy, which the Lord drank when He suffered, rising again from hell. Therefore He would not reveal what He was, but said that He had been sent as a Son by the Father. Thus He Himself had given Himself to be spoken of by the prophets, that God on earth should be the Son of the Most High. At this He Himself groans, while He was lowly in the flesh, and bears witness to the Father, that He might confirm the prophetic words. From Israel we read that such a man rises again, and 'He is a man,' it says, 'and who among them knew Him?'—so Jeremiah says. 'This is our God, our equal'; and after these things He was seen also on earth, dwelling among men. But Isaiah says: 'Thou art God, and we knew it not.'

'And God is in thee, and besides thee there is no other.' And who in the West should come at the prophets' law? 'Sing to the Lord—God is His name—who comes!' And the forty-fourth psalm says concerning Him: 'I shall be exalted among the nations in a great name.' And elsewhere we read: 'This day I have begotten thee, my son; ask, and I will give thee, and thou shalt have the nations for thine inheritance.' Surely now it appears who is God, and who is in Him, and in whose name we nations everywhere should believe. It was said to my Christ, whose right hand I hold, this: 'Let the nations hear, and let Him Himself rule the nations.' What need is there of more, when the matter is so openly proved, when that people which is rebuked already rejoices in Him?

But those wretched ones, who deck out empty fables and defame Him as a magician, would have shut the mouths of those who sing. What shall I call them—before they were scattered, whom not even the necessity of exile broke? If He was a magician, why then did the prophets sing that He would come from heaven, that He Himself might be the hope of the nations? If they falsely declare about themselves that He would destroy the land—since what came upon them turns out true—then their words about Him too shall be false. But because they have always been despised because they were bloodthirsty, against their own Lord they rebel, calling Him a magician. Nor will they hear what the seers said against them: that they should not understand at all even at the very end. God Himself described them: 'With closed breast, may they neither see with their eyes nor understand with a hardened heart.'

For the heart of this wicked people has grown fat, so that they recognize nothing, until they are healed by My word. It was foretold that God should be born in the flesh for us, that there might justly come upon them a greater torment: 'Behold, God Himself shall give you a sign from on high: a virgin shall conceive and the earth shall bring forth a heavenly One; let Him be called Emmanuel'—He had commanded them this—which in the Latin tongue unfolds as 'God with us.' Hear, that He Himself should be nourished with honey and butter, and: 'He should take Samaria before He could speak.' But this is a hidden history, which the learned unfold, that a suckling babe should win spoils without a fight; whose Passion was foretold in such a way before, that God should become capable of suffering with shed blood. Isaiah says:

'Like a sheep led to the altar, He did not cry out with His voice, but bore all things patiently.' He is fastened with nails, which David had foretold of old; and according to the Scriptures they gave Him vinegar to drink. And: 'Upon my garments,' He said, 'they cast lots'—which was done, and we read that in Him all things were accomplished. There came also darkness for three hours from the sixth hour, and the day hastened to bring on the stars of night. This had been foretold to come to pass through the prophet Amos, that it should suddenly veil itself amid the holy solemnities. O evil offspring, O people of treacherous brow! 'I begot offspring,' God said, 'who would deny me.' And He said: 'Hear the voice of the trumpet.' 'We will not,' they say. This Ezekiel says: 'The nations afar off shall therefore hear.' With one heading I wish to touch the book of Deuteronomy:

'You nations shall be at the head; for the unbelieving are behind.' If the rebellious utterly reject all that is said above, know what they put forward, when the matter is stated so plainly. See then now, you doubters who until now have wavered, that according to Scripture the nations were before in the Lord. Now therefore it is right to believe in Him whom the books designate, and not in empty idols, who are vainly worshipped for life; nor to be joined to those voluptuous and unbridled men, who love their luxuries more than the precepts of the Most High. It is not enough of a fault, that they will not believe, but rather they slander: 'We cast Him into a pit.' Wherefore the Lord also, being indignant, chides them: 'Because of you My name is blasphemed among the nations,' He says. If He was cast into a pit, then why is it proclaimed that He rose again?

'From the depths, O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul: I slept,' He says, 'and took my rest secure; by the help of the Lord I rose again, having suffered no harm.' And again He says: 'Thou wilt not leave me in hell, nor wilt thou give thy holy one to see corruption.' Here resounding He says: 'Son of the prophet, I ascend, that I may declare the Lord, the Most High, suffered through misery.' And in the book of Psalms it is cried concerning the death of the Lord—not, as they suppose, that David refers it to himself. Or if they suppose that, does all that he said agree? David was not scourged, nor lifted up on a cross. What? The Jews prophesy after the manner of Saturn, they gather in fables, when judgment is already declining upon them. Not as upon a malefactor is one struck and lifted on a cross. To the ignorant, the untaught, those who know nothing, they feign such things.

'Who is that God whom we fixed to the cross?' they say, unwilling to regard the Scriptures, blinded in heart. Behold, another prophet sings, repeating yet again, by whose voice nevertheless such a decree is inscribed: 'Now I shall arise,' says the Lord, 'now I shall be glorified, now you shall be humbled, now your foolishness shall come upon you; now you understand, now shall be your confusion: you devise vain things, therefore the fire shall hold you.' This Isaiah says. Then thus also that very Majesty, when He was in the flesh, Himself professes who He was: 'No one striving had power to take away my soul, but of my own accord I lay it down of myself by my own decree. And I have power again to take it up.' But more openly it is cried concerning the death of the Just One, that it may appear the Jews were the more hardened:

'Behold, the Just One perishes, and no one even understands it; but the burial of this Beloved shall be in peace.' Why do they slander, saying He was let down into a pit, when we read that He was delivered to burial? Shameful, cruel, blind, proud men, who ought rather to mourn over the deed, applaud! For inspired Solomon prophesies concerning Him, and pursues it further, to show the Just One more fully: 'Let us surround the Just One, if He seems to us to be a burden, who strongly opposes our works as contrary; He reproaches us utterly that nothing of our law is kept, and still affirms that He is the Son of the Most High. In every way He rejects and esteems us to be triflers; He keeps himself apart from us and walks in another way.'

'He calls us unclean, and pursues another righteousness, and rejoices to himself that the Lord, Father of the heavens, is his. Therefore, if his words are true, let us prove them; let us test this God, seeing what is in Him; let us question Him, at peace amid every torment; let us condemn Him to a most shameful death,' they say. When they had done these things, they wagged their hanging heads: 'Let the Father save Him, or let Him come down from there!' That Solomon might openly show them to be blind, thus, as though now recounting it, he also blames them for having done such things: 'While they devise these things, they were led into impious error; their own malice blinded them to rage.' Behold, because they themselves are blind, yet call others so, Solomon said to them: 'They knew not the secrets of God.' Whatever all the former witnesses spoke, in Christ were they accomplished.

Or shall they say it is of another? If they wish to do this, frustrated in their speech, let them mock themselves, when they see the people in Him. Who was that Just One of whom the prophets sang, since no one is just on earth, unless He had come from heaven? For David the prince sinned by loving a girl; Solomon also sinned; and yet they repented. Since these men, so famous and distinguished, their kings, were not just, but they themselves sang of the Just One; nor indeed did Isaiah the seer say such things of himself, who was sawn asunder by King Manasseh with a saw. One was stoned, another was slaughtered at the altar, another Herod ordered to be beheaded while shut up in prison. All the just seers were destroyed by another death, whereas the Lord hung upon a tree, by the voice of Moses:

'Not as a man is God hung up,' He intimates beforehand; 'or not as a son of man does He suffer threats,' He says. Thus when the Lord Himself had come, He followed these words: 'I must,' He says, 'be rejected, by the voice of Moses.' But I do not gather the whole, only the chief summits, so that the ignorant may the more easily learn the truth. But these wicked men, who seek to live deceitfully, once bloodstained, persist in feigning vain things. They make fools the more to vanish away by their words, that He was crucified, when it must needs be so for that same One. For thus He ordained it, because of the fall of the firstborn; not for that one alone, but for us also He came from heaven. He established a people new, firm in His name; according to the prophecies Christ fulfilled all things.

'Behold, I make new things,' Isaiah cries in Him, 'and let no one reckon the former things nor follow the ancient.' These new things are this day brought forth under our law: we nations have believed in Christ, by the word of Moses. He had foretold that there would be two peoples, and indeed he said the lesser people would excel. But these men, full of wickedness, now in desperate fury: 'The law was given to us,' they say; 'whence did you come?' If they oppose us, they think also to resist the Most High, who willed to be good to us... Nor do they consider this, stiff-necked with rigid bristles. What? Always they tormented the innocent, the law forsaken. So they did to God, cruel as they were wont, and yet still dare to call themselves sons of the Most High.

Now in what manner the Lord rose again, I have noted above—not from my own voice, but I have spoken the prophetic words. He had foretold to His disciples all things concerning Himself: how He would suffer at the hands of the people while Peter denied Him; and that He would rise from the tombs on the third day. He had said this very thing, and fulfilled all His words. But when He had risen, He Himself came to the apostles and stood in their midst: 'Peace be unto you,' He said. Among those disciples one was not present while they were praying; and when they told him, he began to disbelieve, and added: 'Unless I first put my finger where the nails were, or where He was pierced by the lance, I will not believe.' Then on the Lord's day He returned again to them and stood in their midst: 'Peace be unto you,' He said. And at once He approaches that unbelieving Thomas:

'Come nearer and touch My body as before. I am not a shade, such as the dead are held to be: a shade makes no footprint; consider the wound.' He stretched out His palms; and that one began to touch, and put his hand into the side where the lance had been fixed, and thereupon cast himself down in prayer: 'Thou art truly my God and Lord!' To whom He answered: 'Because thou hast seen, thou hast believed; but blessed are those after-comers, who believe at hearing the name alone.' Forty days in order He spent with them, and taught them many things that would come upon the world. After His ascension they wrought many miracles, by His word they healed the sick in the name of Christ. If He were such as these treacherous men say, mighty works would not have been done through Him by the word of the witnesses.

He ascended into the heavens, as also the Scripture sang: 'Receive the King, you princes of the heavens, on high!' What more need is there to recite all things from the law? These things suffice for the unlearned, to be kept with a good heart. But if they themselves will not know God by reading these things, let them charge it to themselves, where they have come, even there where they would not. They do nothing but heart; for the rest, concerning life there is silence. What does it profit to pursue worldly things vainly on earth, and to know the riches of kings, and their wars? And to know the madman's forum, skilled in law—because laws waver, lest perchance they be ruled by reward? Let one be a defender, let one be a divine orator, he shall profit nothing in death, if while alive he denied Christ. Rather let him first seek where his life is brought, if he be wise; if otherwise, he is censured.

They read the laws and learn wondrous pleadings, but in their dealings they overpower the wretched on whose behalf they speak. Unhappy is he who comes into their mouth; they bear off the praises, and he the victory in losses. The wretched man stands mute in the midst, who grieves more within; they thunder with their mouth, and he by his silence over money. Meanwhile the adorned voice clamours by the day, and often the worse cause becomes the better by giving a little more. Hence the wise man seeks his price, hence he rejoices to win; even if he act wrongly, so long as he is but victor, he ails. He treats nothing of his own cause, while he strives for gain; he undertakes another's hope and casts his own behind. Many are snatched away by the success of the world's wood; while they rejoice in brief things, they remain apart from the grace of Christ.

While they covet many things with the eye, while they seek to increase, God is nothing to them but the life of the world. He is busy for the belly; the daily contest is for that, and he spurns the true contest for eternal salvation. Whoever is, as it were, vigilant for his money-bag, is praised as shrewd; but he who follows God is judged dung by them. O too happy, if anyone should avoid worldly things! Let him be a fool to others, so long as he be wise to God Most High. This is the whole hope: to believe in God, who hung upon a tree; foul though the thing be, yet it is profitable for the life to come. For that firstborn people was deceived in Him, because he called Him Son, when He is God, the Ancient One Himself. He went before them in a pillar of cloud and fire, when He freed them out of Egypt to the last man.

He commands the cruel, unspeakable deed concerning the only-begotten son, that He might prove Abraham, to whom from heaven an angel said: 'Spare him!' And He is God, and made Himself man as well, and whatever He shall be able, He will do, that dumb things may speak. He made Balaam's ass speak as he struck it, and a dog, that it might say to Simon: 'You are called by Peter!' That many might learn about him from Paul preaching, He made a lion speak to the people with a divine voice. Then, what our nature itself does not allow, He made an infant of five months speak openly to the crowd. This One was to come, mingled with our blood, that He might be seen as man, but God lay hidden in flesh. 'Not an old man shall come, nor an angel,' said Isaiah, 'but the Lord Himself shall come to show Himself to us.' Him the sea feared, Him the winds, Him Tartarus itself.

Every creature acknowledged the hidden Lord. The wicked people alone raised opposition against Him: 'Far be it, that the Lord should come in such a form!' He, as upon earth, so walked upon the waves of the sea, and commands the winds, to render the sea calm. He broke the law of Tartarus with His present word, and raises from the tombs Lazarus, stinking on the fourth day. For when one was being carried out, and had met Him: 'Arise, young man!' He said. And that one rose again from the bier. Entreated by the father for the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, now lifeless, He raises her up amid the mourners. He made the mute to speak and especially the deaf to hear, and the man born blind from the womb to see in the open air. After thirty-eight years He bade the paralytic arise, whom they marvelled at, carrying his pallet on his neck.

...and at the touching of His garment she was healed of an issue of blood. He broke five loaves for five thousand men, and again refreshed four thousand from seven. That the Lord might more fully show Himself present, He had been invited to a wedding with His mother; and when He was asked to come to aid when the wine had failed, He then bade them fill the jars more quickly with water, which He first tasted, and so commanded it to be served. Yet not even so could they recognize the Lord by His deeds, but they raged, as wicked men, to destroy Him by death. This very thing He allows, since He so decreed to suffer; if nevertheless they shall believe, then at last they shall have pardon. This is the Firstborn, foretold beforehand by the prophets, that He should be called on earth the Offspring of the Most High.

Happy are the men who place their hope in Him; for the foolish shun Him as a thing accursed. Eternity is prepared for him who believes in Christ, that man may be God's companion, living after death. The law and the prophets teach who are worthy of God of the heavens, and to whom the hidden golden ages are revealed. Through so many seers it is cried in number concerning the Son of God, and they closed the eyes of the Son of God, first called; they did not wish to walk in the light when called, but persevering, saying: 'We are the elect!' Still they befool the profane to go to the baths, whom they make clean to please God Most High. Water washes away dirt, not the inward wickedness of the heart, nor can sacrilegious things, when treated, wash away the sacred. Not thus did the Lord command sacred things to be brought to the wicked;

And again the passage that men be kept clean from idols: 'Let no one make for himself the image of a demon,' He says; for He said also to them: 'Do not serve idols.' If God commanded that one be greatly wary of idols, why do those men deceive the nations that they are made pure by washings? Rather, when they receive such men, they ought to teach them to serve no others, but only to please the Most High. While they seek to overshadow their crime concerning the death of Christ, they open the gates everywhere, that entrance be made unto them. Hence therefore they perish utterly, who think they can be made God's by water, while still conscious before to the brigand. Now he worships in vain whatever he pleases, now he seeks the holy things; he knows not where first to turn, that ignorant man, and serves idols, then again seeks the thirtieth feast; now he follows the unleavened bread, who before had sat chaste.

This did not please God, that they should be partakers of demons, who established the law, that a passage might be made therefrom. Two ways are set before you: choose which you will, for you cannot split yourself, so as to go by both; but nevertheless out of these you ought to seek the fitting one; nor fall into the jaws of brigands—be more cautious. Seek the one Lord, who seeks no sacrificial victim, that you may, when cancelled, rise again in a world made new. Why do you attend to the wicked and judge the saints unjust, who show you no word from the law? It is told of the power of God, which He wrought upon them: ... For what He does, what the heavens have created, they do not wish... so that the Lord our God willed no other to be worshipped.

It is enough for them not to recognize so great a thing, and to say: 'He spoke not, but now feigns Himself to be God.' But the Lord Himself overcame their endeavours, and indeed it pleased Him to be called the Son in this; nor would I say of myself such things to deceive, and I have removed them from the unbelieving way. When the Father shall judge, the Son shall be with Him present; but if a man do wrong, he shall be punished, the Father hating. The Father does not wish a contemptuous son to be called His own; for all goodness goes forth from the Father, nor did He make heir that one out of His own purpose; for if a man shall lose, he disowns him, the Father hating him.

He bore the whole burden, He who was the tyrant, nor does the Begetter remit anything moved by him. Why do these men presume, though they were exhorted, saying: 'Out of all the people we are dearest to the Most High'? Can a parricide of his father, always proud against him, be dear, or be rightly called heir? How much more the Lord, who has sons of His own choosing to surpass them! To the meek, the lowly, the foster-children full of obedience, the good things are divided—not to the impious nor to tyrants. The Jews had been openly adopted as sons, but in the testament the impious obtained the name. Let them charge it to themselves: bloodstained, having committed a crime, how could they be partakers of the good things? Why do they shriek against us, why do they envy us heirs? Had they but done good, they too would have been in the part of the bequest.

Nor today are they silent, and they will not believe in Christ, who had been foretold to them as saving in the law; concerning whom you have already heard how the prophets sang: that the Lord would come into the lands, whom the nations should adore. This One surely they admonish us to recognize as the Most High, who renews man and forgives former sins. For He Himself also threatens the worshippers of gods: 'The sacrificer to idols shall perish in the second death.' Whoever therefore follows gods fashioned in gold, or cast in silver or stone, in wood or in bronze, that unhappy one shall be sent into accursed fire, nor does he wholly die there, but suffers wicked torments. There are men like cattle in this their nature, who will not receive the bridle of God Most High, but wander.

Since they themselves cannot endure to bear such things from servants, into whose blood the cruel often descend. Asserting, they add: 'There is nothing after our death; while we live, this is it'; and they wallow after the manner of swine. 'Let there be no luxury that should pass us by in our age; while it is the time of life, let us enjoy all things of the world.' Undisciplined, they refuse the clemency of God, pursuing pleasures, as though this were the only life. Thus they withdraw from God, who promises that one should live for ever: they fight against the good, when the wicked is to be resisted. We all manifestly erred, persuaded by the world; but by the grace of the Lord we are called to believe the law. Therefore He came and wrought His trophies secretly, and God became man, that He might have us in the future.

But very many perish, who think to please both, idols and God, when no one can please two. There is one God in heaven, of heaven, earth, and sea, whom Moses taught to have hung upon a tree for us. Whence indeed the slothful err, that He should suffer such things, not sufficiently intent upon the mystery, the secret of God. Through the envy of the devil death entered into the world, which God secretly destroyed, born of a virgin. By which nativity the blind Jews go out of their senses, and befool the foolish, bloodstained for the crime committed. No one can plead any excuse afterward, since now there is given to us the means of believing. Not in vain did God come into the lands from heaven, but He came that He might make a people called by His name.

If anyone shall not have confessed Him in this nature, he loses even what he has lived, and too late laments amid punishments; or surely, while gray-haired he hopes, expecting to believe, the divine man is shut out from eternal life, deceased. Therefore now we ought the sooner to be mindful of Him, who promises to restore life to us after death. Moreover He adds this: that we shall be immortal, and shall enjoy by seeing what the eye had not seen before. These things shall come to pass when six thousand years are fulfilled, at which time I hope we ourselves are already on the shore of the harbour. Then man shall rise again, brought back into the contest of the sun, and rejoices in God, remembering what he was before; who, as he frail heard in his former flesh, when he is incorrupt, recognizes the promises made before.

Marvelling at what glory has thus come to man, he says: 'As I heard before, so I behold each thing.' All these alike cry out, raised from hell: 'Even as we heard before, behold we see!' All pain shall depart from the body, the ulcer too shall depart, nor shall there be any anxiety, but joys always. Whoever believes in the Three and perceives One to be present, this one shall be perpetual, reborn into the eternal ages. But some say this: 'When do we suppose these things are to come?' Receive in few words, after which deeds those things shall follow. Many signs indeed shall come to pass, the limits of so great a plague, but the beginning shall be the seventh persecution of ours. Behold, already it knocks at the gate and is forced to be, which shall quickly hurl across the Goths bursting through the river.

King Apollyon shall be with them, dire in name, who shall scatter the persecution of the saints by arms. He proceeds to Rome with many thousands of the nation, and by the decree of God takes captive in part those subdued. Many of the senators then indeed shall weep as captives, and blaspheme the God of the heavens, conquered by the barbarian. Yet these Gentiles feed the Christians everywhere, whom they seek out rather as brothers, full of joy. For the luxurious and those worshipping vain idols they persecute, and put the senate under the yoke. These evils they receive who persecuted the beloved: for five months they are slaughtered under this enemy. Meanwhile at that very time the Syrian rises up, who may terrify the foes and deliver the senate thence.

From hell he returns, who had been kept by command for the kingdom, and long preserved, known with his former body. We say, moreover, that this is the ancient Nero, who first punished Peter and Paul in the city. He himself returns again at the very end of the world, from apocryphal places, who was reserved unto this. They marvel that this very one, born hateful, should be; who, when he shall have appeared, they will think to be as a god. But before he comes, Elias shall prophesy, the time divided, in the middle of the week as its axis. When the space is fulfilled, that abominable one succeeds, whom the Jews together then adore along with the Romans. Although there shall be another whom they expect from the East, yet in our slaughter they shall rage with King Nero.

Therefore when Elias prophesies in the land of Judea, and seals the people with a sign in the name of Christ; concerning whom, since very many of them will not believe him, in wrath he beseeches the Most High that it rain not thence: the heaven shall be shut up by him, nor shall it be moistened with dew; he turns also the rivers in wrath into blood. The earth, struck by perpetual aridity, dries up, so that famine invades; there shall then also be plague in the world. Because he does these things, the tormented Jews indeed forge many false accusations against him into crimes, and first they kindle the senate to rise up in anger, and they say that Elias is an enemy to the Romans. Then thereupon the senate, moved in a body by them, beseech Nero with prayers and wicked gifts: 'Take the enemies of the people out of human affairs, through whom even our gods are trampled and not worshipped.'

But he, filled with fury and the prayers of the senate, by public conveyance snatches the prophets from the East. That he may give satisfaction to them, or at least to the Jews, he first immolates these, and so goes forth to the churches. Under whose martyrdom the tenth part of the city falls, and there perish seven thousand men full told. But the Lord takes those up into the air on the fourth day, those whom they had forbidden to be buried, lying unentombed; and they are raised up from the ground, made immortal from death, whom their enemies look up at as they go through the air. Yet not even so are they terrified, but rather grow crueller within against the people of Christ, execrating them with all hatred. For the Most High hardened the wicked hearts, just as before He had hardened Pharaoh's ears.

This harsh and wicked king therefore, Nero put to flight, bids the Christian people be driven from that very city, and adds to himself two partners as Caesars, with whom he may persecute this people with dire fury. They send out edicts also through all the judges everywhere, that they make this race of men to be without the name of Christ. They command also that incense be placed to the images, and, that no one lie hidden, that all come forth crowned. In this history, if a faithful one has refused to go, he goes forth happily; but if not, he becomes one of the crowd. No day of peace shall then be, nor offering to Christ, but everywhere blood flows, which I am overcome to describe; for tears prevail, the hand fails, hearts tremble, although it is fitting for martyrs to bear so many deaths.

Through sea, through lands, through islands and hiding-places he searches long, and they lead the accursed as a victim. These things Nero shall then do, throughout the whole space of a triennium, and in a year and a half he completes the appointed times. For whose crime a deadly vengeance shall come, that both the city and that people may be delivered up along with him, and the empire taken away, which had been wickedly filled, which long wasted all men through evil tributes. There rises up again, amid the destruction of this Nero, a king from the East with four nations thence, and invites to himself very many nations to the city, who may bring aid, although he himself is most mighty; and he shall fill the sea with ships, with many thousands, and if anyone shall meet him, he shall be slaughtered by the sword.

He first takes captive Tyre and Sidon, subdued; for from there the neighboring nations grow faint with terror. Hence plague, hence wars, hence famine, hence harsh tidings are mingled all at once, so that confusion of mind comes about. Meanwhile the trumpet suddenly sounds its blast from heaven, whose noise troubles the inmost hearts in every place. Then too a chariot of fire will be seen among the stars, and a running torch, to announce fire to the nations. At last the whole river Euphrates is dried up, that a way may be prepared for the king with those peoples. Persians, Medes together with Chaldeans and Babylonians shall come, fierce and swift, who know no compassion for any. So when this one, rising up, shall have begun to come from there, both Nero is thrown into turmoil and the senate, seen close at hand. And those three Caesars shall go forth to resist against him;

Those he slays and gives as food to the birds. The armies whose duty it is must worship the victor; and when they return into the city with changed mind, they plunder the temples and whatever is within the city, they ravage and slaughter the men with vast bloodshed; at last they bring the stripped city to fire, so that no trace of it appears any longer. At its destruction the hearts of the powerful waste away, nor do the brutish ones find out for themselves in what time they may live. This one indeed rejoiced, but the whole earth groaned; yet scarcely does fitting retribution find her. She mourns forever, she who boasted herself eternal, whose very tyrants are now already judged by the Most High. The time stands ready at its end, with Rome smoking, and the wages shall come, apportioned to the deserts of each place.

From there, however, the victor advances into the land of Judea, whom the Jews themselves expect to conquer Rome. He works many signs, that they may be able to believe him, in order to seduce them, since he is sent as an unrighteous one; yet from heaven the rendered voice of the Most High rebukes him. Out of Persia a man says of himself that he is immortal. To us Nero is made the Antichrist, that one to the Jews; these two are always the two prophets at the final end. The ruin of the City is Nero, this other the ruin of the whole earth; of whom, however, I suggest a few things which I have read among secret writings. Meanwhile, now too late, he displeases the Jews and them, and they whisper together, since they have been deceived by fraud. They cry out alike to heaven, weeping with their voice; then God Almighty, that he may bring to an end all the things I have said, shall bring forth the people hidden for a long time.

But the Jews are shut in beyond Persia by a river, whom God willed to dwell there until the end. Their captivity reduced them to remain in that same place; out of the twelve tribes, nine and a half abide there. There is no lying there, nor is there any hatred; therefore no son dies before his parents; nor do they bewail the dead nor mourn after our fashion, since they await the resurrection that is to come. They do not feed on any living creature with added flesh-foods, but only on vegetables, which are without shed blood. Full of righteousness they live with bodies undefiled; among them impious astrology exercises no powers. No fevers come upon them, no savage colds, since they obey the whole law in purity; which we ourselves also shall follow, living in purity.

Only death was present, and toil, for the rest were stilled. This was the people which is now set apart outside. When the river is dried up they shall make their way back into the land of Judea; with them God too shall come to fulfill his promises; the whole journey through, the people exults at God's presence. All things grow green before them, all things rejoice, creation itself is glad to receive the saints: in every place fountains spring up ready to be, where the people of the Most High passes with heavenly awe. The clouds make a shade for them, lest they be afflicted by the sun, and lest they grow weary, the mountains themselves bow down beneath them; for an angel of the High One shall be sent before them, to grant them a peaceful guidance as they go. These advance lightly without toil as they go, and like lions, wherever they pass, they lay all waste.

Nor indeed shall any legion be able to resist against them, if it bring war, since God himself is with them. They storm the nations, they cast down the cities as well, by God's permission they empty all the colonies, and they are enriched with gold and silver by plundering, and thus honored they chant hymns together alike. But soon they hasten to the holy ancestral city, for that terrible tyrant takes fright and flees to the kings of the North with great commotion, whence he snatches a people, that it may stand as if for battle against. But while they hasten with the army of God, the rebels are laid low upon the ground by the angels when the battle is joined, and the adulterer himself and the false prophet, once seized, are cast alive into the lake under fiery punishment.

And their chief men, the prefects or the legates, are reduced to the rank of servants, the wicked beneath the saints. Meanwhile the saints enter into the holy colony, that they may receive God's promises, rejoicing without end. They entreat God on behalf of the dead, that they may rise again, which he himself promised long ago concerning the first resurrection. God then begins to be angry with his enemies, and the appointed day, since it has come for the wicked. But when he begins to judge the world by fire, he spares the godly, and the fire falls upon the impious. Scarce do a few remain, who may report such deeds, and those who are reserved escape, that they may serve the righteous. After the persecution of the saints and so great a slaughter, it draws near that there should come a day detestable and burning.

Behold, heaven sounds hoarse, yet echoing everywhere, which makes the whole frightened world fall into ruin. The sun flees heedlessly, suddenly the image of night comes, and God cries out: How long did you think I would endure? At his given signal plague rushes through the whole upper air, with the crash of thunder the onset of fire descends. Then one bolt after another is hurled from the stars, a fiery tempest, kept in reserve for so many years, breaks loose; the pestilential ruin roars, the earth trembles, stirred up, nor does the whole human race foresee whither it may turn itself. The stars of heaven fall, the heavenly bodies are judged together with us: the dwellers of heaven are thrown into turmoil, while the ruin of the age is wrought. There shall then be no help and an empty cry; no ship shall receive a man, no hiding place; nor do those help him whom before he worshiped as great:

Each one busies himself for his own sake, but it profits him nothing; it shall profit only those who have been marked for Christ; dew shall be for them, but for the rest a deadly punishment. A part of the unbelievers is kept gently scorched, that their own kind may again bewail itself at the very last. Wherever men turn themselves, the fiery force seethes; the very air of the world, which pleased before, is consumed. What shall I say of the crashes of heaven assailing with thunderbolt, when the wrath gathered through so many years is all poured forth? Hence fire, hence thunders, hence whirlwinds, so many evils, seethe, and the sky is snatched away by a sudden force of death into the shadow. Partly the trembling earth loosens its foundations... partly the thunders shatter the firm ramparts; and the walls are thrown into confusion like dust into the breezes; rocks fly, the roofs of houses quake with the winds.

The fatherlands are laid waste, every city is overthrown... so that heaven hands them over to ruin in a moment. So many crashes, so great thunderings and so many wrecks who shall be able to bear, or to flee so great shipwrecks? What shall the wretched mother then do for her sweet little one? But if the father loves his son, what does it profit him? Woe to those who flee from the Lord, woe also to the wicked without Christ, whose ones rejoicing are judged together with the piously weeping! Meanwhile all nature laments with bellowings, until at last the completed heavenly fury ceases. Then for seven months the earth shall be cleansed by fire, and he who was lowly, coming from heaven, is seen. With him descend the angels of eternal brightness, the tombs are broken open, the just bodies rise up;

The clouds catch them up and carry them to meet Christ in the air; the living saints receive the Lord. He raises those too, that they may see his glory, those who fixed him to the cross; but in turn he shall render them to the depths. Woe to those wretched ones! The witness slain by them bears witness. Because by their punishments I, foreseeing... we here. These things we sing not out of envy, but we see them fixed. While the just rejoice, those are burned in hell; David said of them: Lord, repay them their iniquities! And if they will not believe, they shall dwell in the shadow of death. Surely he could here have prayed glad things for his people; why did he rather choose: Let them descend alive below, the rest who were among the saints at the coming of Christ? From the two peoples the lineage of the Most High flees... this greater one shall make them be changed quickly for himself.