'But if the way is too long for you, and you are not able to carry these things, because the place which the Lord your God shall choose for his name to be called there is far from you -- since the Lord your God will have blessed you -- then you shall turn them into money, and take the money in your hands, and go to the place which the Lord your God shall choose; and you shall spend the money on whatever your soul desires, on oxen, or on sheep, or on wine, or on strong drink, or on whatever your soul desires, and you shall eat there before the Lord your God.'
And again he seals the point concerning the place, speaking somewhat as follows: 'Every firstborn male that is born among your oxen and among your sheep, the males you shall set apart for the Lord your God. You shall not work with the firstborn of your bull, nor shear the firstborn of your sheep; you shall eat it before the Lord your God, year by year, in the place which the Lord your God shall choose, you and your household.'
After this, observe again how he specifies concerning the feasts too, that they are to be celebrated nowhere else on earth but only in that single, designated place. He says accordingly: 'Observe the month of the new grain, and you shall keep the Passover to the Lord your God, sheep and oxen, in the place which the Lord your God shall choose for himself.'
And again he reminds them, saying: 'You shall not be able to sacrifice the Passover in any of your cities which the Lord your God gives you, but at the place which the Lord your God shall choose -- there you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening, at the going down of the sun, at the time when you came out of the land of Egypt; and you shall boil it, and eat it in the place which the Lord your God shall choose.'
Such, then, is the law concerning the feast of the Passover. But hear what he says concerning that of Pentecost: 'You shall number for yourself seven whole weeks, from the time you begin to put the sickle to the harvest; and you shall keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God, according as your hand is able, according to what he shall have given you, according as the Lord your God has blessed you.'
'And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite who is in your cities, and the proselyte, and the orphan, and the widow who is among you, in the place which the Lord your God shall choose for himself, for his name to be called there.'
And as for the third feast, hear where he commands it to be kept: 'You shall keep the feast of tabernacles for yourself seven days, when you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your winepress; and you shall rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, your manservant, and your maidservant, and the widow, in the place which the Lord your God shall choose for himself.'
Since he thus, by so many indications, points to this place, and has said so many times that all must gather there with their whole clan and their whole household, how could this ever have suited those who lived even a little way from Judea, let alone the nations throughout the whole inhabited world? Especially since he grants no pardon whatsoever to those who transgress what has been laid down, but pronounces a curse against all who do not keep everything, saying in these very words: 'Cursed is he who does not abide by all the things written in this law, to do them.'
Observe, further, in another respect too, the things impossible for all mankind in the legislation of Moses. Having distinguished the willful and grievous sins, and having attached, to each of those deserving the greatest punishment, its penalty, he lays down laws by which, in a different manner, he also turns back to right those who transgress unwillingly.
One of these laws runs thus: 'If one soul from the people of the land sin unwillingly, in doing any one of all the commandments of the Lord which ought not to be done, and shall transgress, and the sin which he sinned becomes known to him, he shall bring as his offering a female goat without blemish, he shall bring it for his sin which he sinned, to the place where they slaughter the whole burnt offerings, and the priest shall take of the blood.'
And observe how, here too, one who has stumbled into some offense unintentionally must, all the same, come to the place where they slaughter the whole burnt offerings -- and this was the very place which he had already mentioned many times before, saying, 'which the Lord your God shall choose.'
And that this could not be carried out by all men on earth, the lawgiver himself, having perceived it precisely, indicated as well, not proclaiming the law indefinitely for all, but adding, 'if a soul sin unwillingly, of the people of the land.'
And he lays down a second law, running thus: 'And if a soul hears the voice of an oath, and this one is a witness, either having seen or having knowledge, if he does not report it, he shall bear the sin.' What, then, must this person do but take the victim in hand and hasten to make purification? And where again, but in the place where they slaughter the whole burnt offerings?
And, again, a third: 'Or a soul,' he says, 'that touches any unclean thing, whether the carcass of unclean cattle, and takes from it, and is himself defiled and transgresses; or touches the uncleanness of a man, from any of his uncleanness by touching which he is defiled -- and it was hidden from him, but afterward he came to know it, and he transgressed --'
What then was it fitting for the one who had been defiled to do, but to come again to the place, and to offer for his sin which he had sinned a female from the flock, either a ewe-lamb, or a she-goat from the goats, for a sin offering?
And the same law applied also concerning a soul who swears, pronouncing distinctly with the lips to do evil or to do good, according to all that a man may pronounce with an oath, and it escapes him, and he comes to know it and sins in any of these things, and confesses the sin concerning which he sinned — this person too, it says, taking the same offering, let him hasten to the place, and the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin, and the sin shall be forgiven him.
And another law, besides those mentioned, determines somewhat as follows: a soul who forgets through forgetfulness, and sins unwittingly against the holy things of the Lord, shall bring a ram for his trespass to the Lord. And he shall bring it again to the high priest, evidently at the chosen place.
And to these he adds a sixth law, saying: a soul, if it sins and does one thing from all the commandments which ought not to be done, and did not know it, and transgresses, and bears his sin, he shall again bring a ram to the high priest, and the priest shall make atonement for him, concerning his ignorance in which he was ignorant, and he did not know it, and it shall be forgiven him.
Already, it says, as the seventh: a soul, if it sins, and overlooking overlooks the commandments of the Lord, and lies to his neighbor concerning a deposit, or concerning partnership, or robbery, or has wronged his neighbor in something, or has found a lost thing and lies about it, and swears unjustly concerning any one of all the things which a man may do so as to sin in these — then, when he has sinned and transgressed and shall restore the stolen thing which he stole, or the wrong which he did, or the deposit which was deposited with him, or the lost thing which he found, or anything at all concerning which he swore unjustly, he shall repay it in full, the principal, and add a fifth part to it.
And it was necessary that, after confessing the sin and after making restitution, he should again put everything aside and hasten to the place which the Lord God should choose, and offer for his trespass an unblemished ram, and the priest should make atonement for him before the Lord, and it should be forgiven him.
These things, and concerning these matters, the admirable Moses set forth with precision, both concerning those who had sinned unwillingly and concerning those who sinned through ignorance — far removed from deliberate transgressions, for which also he fixes inexorable punishments, restraining his own people from them.
For he who, in the case of involuntary sins, did not grant pardon before the sin was confessed, and then, as it were exacting a small penalty from the sinner by means of the prescribed sacrifice, and by the unhesitating journey to the holy place intensified both the zeal and the reverence of those among his people who had chosen to worship God — how would he not have far more restrained the impulses of things done deliberately? What, then, ought one to conclude from this, when Moses, as has been said, summing up everything, solemnly charges, saying: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the law, to do them’?
For indeed, those from the ends of the earth who were going to worship God according to Moses, so as to escape the curse and obtain the blessing promised to Abraham, would have had to do all these things: to come to Jerusalem three times a year; and the women from all the nations who had chosen to worship God, just having ceased from childbirth and travail, would have had to undertake so long a journey in order to offer up, for each child born, the sacrifice prescribed by Moses; and those who had touched a dead body, or those who had sworn falsely, or those who had done anything unwittingly, would have had to come from the ends of the earth, and run and hasten to the appointed purification, so as to escape the visitation of the curse.
But you perceive how, even for those who dwelt around Jerusalem itself and spent their lives in Judea alone, the life according to Moses was hard to accomplish — let alone that it could be fulfilled by the rest of the nations. For this reason our Savior and Lord Jesus, the Son of God, after the resurrection from the dead, fittingly said to his disciples, ‘Make disciples of all the nations,’ and adds, ‘teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.’
For he did not command that the laws of Moses be taught to all the nations, but whatever he himself commanded; and these were the things contained in his Gospels. Fittingly, then, his disciples and the apostles too, in their deliberation concerning the nations, confess that it is not possible to apply the laws of Moses to the nations, since they were not easily accomplished even by themselves or by their fathers. Peter accordingly says in the Acts: ‘Now therefore why do you tempt God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?’
Fittingly, then, Moses himself, precisely on account of these things, said that another prophet besides himself would arise, and proclaims as good news that this one would be lawgiver of all the nations, hinting at the Christ; and he exhorts his own people to obey him, declaring this also somewhat as follows: ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me; him you shall hear in all things that he shall speak to you. And it shall be that every soul which does not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among its people.’
And again he proclaims that this prophet — namely, the Christ — having come forth from the Jews, would prevail over all the nations, saying: ‘How fair are your houses, O Jacob, your tents, O Israel! Like shady groves, and like a garden beside a river, like tents which the Lord has pitched. A man shall come forth from his seed, and shall rule over many nations, and his kingdom shall be exalted.’
But also from which tribe — out of the twelve altogether among the Hebrews — namely, that the foretold lawgiver of the nations, Christ, would come forth from Judah, and at what time, he makes clear, saying that it would be after the failure of the succession, from their forefathers, of those who ruled the nation of the Jews: ‘A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a prince from his loins, until the things stored up for him shall come; and he is the expectation of the nations.’
But what expectation was there other than that promised to Abraham, that in him all the nations of the earth should be blessed? It is clear, then, that Moses himself knew precisely that the legislation ordained by him was too weak to be applied to all the nations, and that for the fulfillment of the oracles given to Abraham another prophet was needed.
And this, then, was he whom, testifying beforehand that he would come forth from the tribe of Judah and would rule over many nations, he proclaimed as good news.
For these reasons, then, we have chosen and embraced the sacred books among the Hebrews as containing the oracles concerning us the nations, seeing that they are also our own, especially since not only did Moses foretell beforehand concerning the lawgiver of the nations who would come after him, but also the prophets after him, to speak collectively, all proclaimed beforehand the same things — as, for instance, David, saying: ‘Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them, that the nations may know that they are men.’
See how he too mentions a second lawgiver of the nations. Therefore also, in another place, he calls upon the nations to sing not the old and Mosaic song, but another, a new one, saying: ‘Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth. Declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; he is fearsome above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord made the heavens. Bring to the Lord, O families of the nations, bring to the Lord glory due to his name.’
And again: ‘Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. The Lord has made known his salvation; before the nations he has revealed his righteousness. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.’
And observe in what way, in these words, he proclaims the new song not to the nation of the Jews, but to all the nations — since the old song through Moses belonged to the Jews alone. This very new song Jeremiah, another Hebrew prophet, calls a new covenant, saying: ‘Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took hold of their hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not abide in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant which I will make with Israel, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their mind, and write them upon their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.’
Do you see how he too, distinguishing two covenants, calls the one old and the other new, and says that the new will not be according to the old, which he made with the fathers? For the old was legislated for the Jews who had fallen away from the piety of their ancestors, and had come to emulate the Egyptian life and manner, and had slipped into the polytheistic error and the superstition surrounding the idols of the nations — legislated as though to raise up those who had fallen, and to set upright, by suitable teachings, those lying prostrate. ‘For law,’ it says, ‘is not laid down for the righteous, but for the lawless and disobedient, the impious and sinners, and their like.’
But the new covenant leads by the hand those who, through the grace and gift of God given by our Savior, have been raised up to walk and hasten toward the promised kingdom of God, calling all men equally into one and the same participation in good things. This new covenant Isaiah, another Hebrew prophet, again calls a new law, saying: ‘For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and he shall judge between the nations; and all the nations shall come, and all the peoples shall be gathered together, and they shall say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob.’
And who could this law be that has gone forth from Zion, being other than the one legislated in the wilderness on Mount Sinai through Moses, than the gospel word which, through our Savior Jesus Christ and his apostles, has gone forth from Zion, and passed through all the nations? For it is plain that, from Jerusalem and the Mount Zion adjoining it, where our Savior and Lord had made most of his sojournings and teachings, the law of his new covenant, having begun and gone forth from there, has shone forth to all men, in accordance with his own words which he addressed to his disciples, saying: ‘Go, make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.’
And what were these things but the teachings and instructions of the new covenant? Since, then, it has been demonstrated that these things are so, it is now time to see the manner of the new covenant and of the new song and law that has been proclaimed beforehand.
The old covenant, then, and the law through Moses, has been shown to be suited only to the nation of the Jews, and to them only as dwelling in their own land — neither to the rest of the nations throughout the whole inhabited world, nor to the Jews who have settled abroad. But the manner of the new covenant must, surely, have been established as beneficial for life to all nations, so that those who were to live according to it would in no way, from any quarter, be hindered — neither by country, nor by race, nor by place, nor by anything else whatsoever.
And such has appeared the law and manner of life legislated by our Savior Jesus Christ, renewing the most ancient piety, older than that of Moses, according to which the God-beloved Abraham and his forefathers are shown to have lived.
If, then, you should wish to examine together the life of Christians and the worship of God laid down by Christ for all the nations, alongside the manner of those around Abraham who are attested for piety and righteousness, you will find it to be the very same.
For those men, having withdrawn from the error of polytheism, and having turned away from the superstition surrounding idols, and having risen above the whole visible creation, and having deified neither sun nor moon nor any of the parts of the universe, raised themselves up to the one supreme God, the Most High himself, the maker of heaven and earth.
This too Moses himself confirms in the narratives of the ancient history, recording Abraham as saying: ‘I will stretch out my hand to God, the Most High, who created the heaven and the earth.’
And even before this, introducing Melchizedek, whom he says was priest of God Most High, blessing Abraham somewhat as follows: ‘Blessed be Abraham by God Most High, who created heaven and earth.’
You would find also that Enoch and Noah were justified and were well-pleasing to God after the same manner as Abraham. But Job also — a man true and righteous, blameless, God-fearing, abstaining from every evil thing — is attested before the times of Moses; and having undergone the trial of piety toward the God of all through the sudden loss of his possessions, he has left behind for those after him the greatest example of the manner of a pious man, uttering that philosophic saying: ‘Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, naked also shall I depart. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord, so also it has come to pass. Blessed be the name of the Lord.’
And, revering the Lord of all, he uttered these words, which he himself further clarifies as he proceeds, saying: ‘For he is wise in mind, mighty and great, he who shakes what is under heaven from its foundations, and its pillars are shaken; who speaks to the sun, and it does not rise, and seals up the stars; who alone stretched out the heaven.’
If, then, the word of Christ has recently ordained that all the nations should worship, in like manner to them alone, this very same God whom those men of old, before Moses, who were beloved of God, worshiped, it has become clear how we have become sharers in the same piety as those men. And having partaken of that piety, it is plain that we shall also partake of the blessing.
But also the Word of God, whom it is our custom to call Christ, those men likewise knew, and are attested as having known him; indeed, they were counted worthy, far more remarkably, of his manifest presence and theophany.
Listen, then, how Moses himself again calls the one who appeared to those beloved of God, and who often gave them oracles that were recorded, at one time God and Lord, and at another time also angel of God — plainly showing that this was not the God over all, but a certain second one, styled God and Lord of the men beloved of God, yet angel of the Father who is above all.
He says, then, in these very words: ‘And Jacob went out to Haran, and he came to a place, and slept there, for the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place, and put it at his head, and slept in that place. And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was fixed on the earth, whose top reached to heaven, and the angels of God were going up upon it.’
And the Lord was firmly set upon it, and said: ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac; do not fear. The land on which you are sleeping, to you I will give it, and to your seed, and your seed shall be as the sand of the earth.’
Then, proceeding further, he names this very same one who had appeared to him as God and Lord, angel of God. Jacob accordingly says: ‘And the angel of God said to me in a dream, Jacob; and I said, What is it?’
‘And I have seen,’ it says, ‘all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God who appeared to you in the place of God, where you anointed a pillar to me there, and where you vowed a vow to me there.’ And this same one, who had also appeared to Abraham, is styled God and Lord, initiating the man beloved of God into the mysteries concerning the authority of the Father, and teaching certain things as concerning another God — matters which we shall also examine in due course.
But indeed, concerning Job also, it is not lawful to say that anyone other than this one was he who gave the oracles after the sufficient trial of discipline. For at first, appearing to him through a whirlwind and clouds, he showed himself to be the God of all; and then, proceeding further, he displayed himself, so that Job said: ‘Hear me, O Lord, that I too may speak. I had heard of you before by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye has seen you.’
But if it is not possible to say that the God who is beyond, the invisible and unbegotten and king of all, is beheld by mortal nature, who could the one indicated be, other than the Word of God, who by us is properly called God after the Father? And what need is there to gather more concerning this, when it is possible to take the proofs of these things from the sacred books, which we ourselves too, in accordance with the subject before us, shall at leisure select, as a demonstration that it was none other than the Word of God who was seen by the forefathers beloved of God?
Accordingly, then, after that concerning the Creator of all, the matters concerning Christ also have been handed down in common to us and to them; whence you would find that those very men beloved of God, before Moses, were themselves called ‘christs,’ just as we are called Christians. And hear this too, as the oracle says concerning them in the Psalms: ‘When they were few in number, very few, and sojourners in it, and passed from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people, he allowed no man to wrong them, and he rebuked kings for their sake, saying, Touch not my christs, and do my prophets no harm.’
For the whole context of the passage shows that these things were said concerning Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; so that they shared, in like manner to us, in the very appellation of Christ.
But also, just as the life of virtue and the manner of living according to piety have been proclaimed to all the nations through the admonition of Christ, apart from the ordinance according to Moses, so too among those men of old the same manner of piety was rightly practiced.
Circumcision of the body, then, was of no concern to them, just as it is not to us; nor was abstinence from the eating of such-and-such animals, just as it is not to us. Straightaway, Moses introduces Melchizedek as priest of God Most High, not circumcised in body, not anointed with prepared myrrh according to Moses, not knowing at all what a Sabbath was, nor perceiving anything at all of the things afterward commanded through Moses to the whole nation of the Jews, but living plainly according to the gospel of Christ.
Nevertheless, Moses says that he had become priest of God Most High, and greater than Abraham; he is accordingly introduced blessing Abraham. Such a man too was Noah, a righteous man in his generation, whom, as a spark-seed for the race of mankind, the God of all preserved amid the destruction of the flood, when all upon the earth were perishing.
This man too, then, knowing nothing of Jewish customs, neither in the circumcision of the body nor in the other things ordained by Moses, was nevertheless proclaimed righteous, if anyone ever was.
And even before this man, Enoch, who is also said to have been well-pleasing to God and to have been translated so that his death was not found, being likewise such a man, was neither circumcised in body, nor did he pursue the legislation of Moses at all, but has plainly appeared to have lived in a Christian, not a Jewish, manner. And Abraham himself, who came after those already named and was younger than they in time, though an old man by reason of his age, on account of those who were to be born from him, was the first to undergo circumcision of the body, as a kind of seal, a mark of his succession, handing down this sign to be borne by those who would be born of him according to the flesh.
But before the begetting of children and before circumcision, he himself too, through his withdrawal from idols, and his confession of the one God over all, and through the life of virtue alone, is shown to have lived in a Christian, not a Jewish, manner.
He is accordingly attested to have kept the ordinances and the commandments, and the statutes and the laws of God, before the ordinance of Moses. God, giving him oracles, says accordingly to Isaac: ‘And I will give to your seed all this land, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in your seed, because Abraham your father obeyed my voice, and kept my commandments, and my ordinances, and my statutes, and my laws.’
For even before the law of Moses there were other ordinances of God, and statutes not like those given by Moses, and other laws and commandments of Christ, through which they were justified. And that these were not the same as those legislated through Moses, Moses himself clearly shows in the words he speaks to the people: ‘Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the judgments which I speak in your ears this day, and you shall learn them, and take care to do them. The Lord your God made a covenant with you in Horeb; the Lord did not make this covenant with your fathers, but with you.’
And observe how precisely he speaks of ‘this covenant,’ since he had not made the same one with their fathers. For if he had said absolutely that no covenant had been given to their fathers, his statement would have been false; for a covenant was indeed given to Abraham, and to Noah, as the sacred oracles testify. For this reason Moses says, with this qualification, that it was not ‘this’ one that had been given to their fathers, hinting at another, better and different covenant, through which they too were shown to be beloved of God.