For after the most magnificent and least long-lasting power of Alexander of Macedon—who was also surnamed the Great—by which he had subdued all Asia, indeed almost the whole world, partly by force and arms, partly by terror, when among other parts of the East he had entered and taken possession of Judaea as well; after his death, when his companions, not being about to possess that vast kingdom peaceably among themselves, had divided it, or rather dissipated it, about to lay waste all things with wars, Egypt began to have the Ptolemies as kings. The first of these, the son of Lagus, transported many captives from Judaea into Egypt. But another Ptolemy succeeding him, who was called Philadelphus, permitted all whom that man had brought in subjection to return free;
and moreover he sent royal gifts into the temple of God, and asked of Eleazar, then high priest, that the Scriptures—which he had assuredly heard, as rumor proclaimed, to be divine, and which he had therefore desired to have in the library which he had made most renowned—be given to him. When the same high priest had sent them to him in Hebrew, afterward he requested interpreters as well; and there were given seventy-two, six men from each of the twelve tribes, most learned in both tongues, namely Hebrew and Greek, whose translation custom has now established to be called the Septuagint.
It is handed down that there was indeed in their words so marvelous and astounding and plainly divine an agreement, that—although they had sat down separately at this work (for thus it pleased Ptolemy to test their fidelity)—in no word that meant the same and had equal force, nor in the order of words, did one differ from another; but as though there were one interpreter, so that which all translated was one, since in very truth the Spirit was one in them all. And on this account they had received so marvelous a gift of God, that the authority of those Scriptures might in this way too be commended not as human, but, as they were, as divine—destined to profit the gentiles who would one day believe, which we now see accomplished. CHAPTER XLIII.
Concerning the authority of the Seventy interpreters, which—saving the honor of the Hebrew style—is to be preferred to all interpreters. For although there were also other interpreters who translated those sacred oracles from the Hebrew tongue into Greek—as Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion; and as there is also that translation whose author does not appear, and which on this account, without the interpreter's name, is called the fifth edition—nevertheless the Church has received this one, which is the Septuagint, as though it were the only one; and the Greek Christian peoples use it, most of whom do not know whether there is any other. From this Septuagint translation a translation has also been made into the Latin tongue, which the Latin churches hold;
although in our own times there was not lacking the presbyter Jerome, a most learned man and skilled in all three tongues, who translated those same Scriptures into the Latin tongue not from the Greek, but from the Hebrew. But although the Jews acknowledge his so literate labor to be truthful, while they contend that the Seventy interpreters erred in many places—nevertheless the churches of Christ judge that no one is to be preferred to the authority of so many men, chosen by Eleazar, then high priest, for this so great a work;
because, even if one Spirit, undoubtedly divine, had not appeared in them, but the seventy learned men had, after the manner of men, conferred among themselves the words of their translation, so that what pleased all should stand—not even so ought any one interpreter to be set before them. But since so great a sign of divinity appeared in them, surely whoever else is a truthful interpreter of those Scriptures from the Hebrew into any other language whatsoever, either agrees with those seventy interpreters, or, if he does not seem to agree, a prophetic depth is to be believed to be there. For the same Spirit who was in the prophets when they spoke those things, was the very same also in the seventy men when they translated them;
which Spirit could assuredly, by divine authority, say something else as well, as though that prophet had said both, since the same Spirit said both; and could say this very thing in another way, so that, even if not the same words, yet the same sense might shine clear to those who understand well; and could omit something and add something, so that from this too it might be shown that there was in that work not a human servitude—which the interpreter owed to the words—but rather a divine power, which filled and governed the mind of the interpreter. Some, however, thought that the Greek copies of the Septuagint translation ought to be emended from the Hebrew copies; yet they did not dare to remove what the Hebrews did not have and the Septuagint had set down;
but only added those things which, found in the Hebrew, were not present in the Septuagint, and marked them with certain signs made in the manner of stars at the heads of those same verses, which signs they call asterisks. But those things which the Hebrews do not have, while the Septuagint does, they likewise marked at the heads of the verses with little horizontal strokes, such as the marks by which ounces are written. And many copies having these marks have been spread everywhere, even the Latin ones. But those things which were neither omitted nor added, but expressed differently—whether they make another sense, even one not at variance, or are shown to explain the same sense in another way—cannot be discovered unless both copies are examined.
If therefore, as we ought, we look at nothing else in those Scriptures except what God's Spirit said through men, then whatever is in the Hebrew copies and is not among the seventy interpreters, the Spirit of God willed to say not through these, but through those prophets. But whatever is among the Septuagint and is not in the Hebrew copies, the same Spirit chose to say through these rather than through those, thus showing that both were prophets. For in this way He said some things through Isaiah, others through Jeremiah, others through this or that prophet, or the same things differently through this one and through that one, as He willed. But whatever is found among both, the one and the same Spirit willed to say through both;
but in such a way that the former went before by prophesying, the latter followed prophetically by interpreting them; because, just as in those who spoke true and concordant things there was one Spirit of peace, so also in these, who did not confer among themselves and yet interpreted all things as though with one mouth, the same one Spirit appeared. CHAPTER XLIV. What is to be understood concerning the overthrow of the Ninevites, whose announcement is extended in the Hebrew over a space of forty days, but in the Septuagint is concluded in the brevity of three days. But someone says: 'How shall I know what Jonah the prophet said to the Ninevites—whether 'Three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,' or 'Forty days'?'
For who does not see that both could not then have been said by the prophet, who had been sent to terrify the city with the threat of impending destruction? For if the destruction was to come on the third day, then certainly not on the fortieth day; but if on the fortieth, then certainly not on the third. If, therefore, it is asked of me which of these Jonah said, I think it rather to be that which is read in the Hebrew: 'Forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.'
The Seventy, interpreting far later, were able to say something else, which nevertheless pertained to the matter and converged into one and the same sense, though under another signification, and admonished the reader, neither authority being despised, to lift himself up from the history to seek out those things for the signifying of which the history itself was written. For those things were indeed done in the city of Nineveh, but they also signified something which exceeds the measure of that city—just as it was done that the prophet himself was three days in the belly of the whale, and yet he signified Another who would be three days in the depth of hell, who is the Lord of all the prophets.
Wherefore, if by that city the Church of the gentiles is rightly taken as prophetically figured—overthrown, namely, through repentance, so that it should no longer be what it had been—since this was accomplished through Christ in the Church of the gentiles, of which that Nineveh bore the figure: whether through forty days or through three days, the same Christ Himself was signified; through forty days, namely, because He passed so many days with His disciples after the resurrection and ascended into heaven; through three days, because on the third day He rose again. As though they had roused from sleep the reader who desired to cling to nothing else than the history of the deeds done, the Seventy interpreters, who were likewise prophets, that he might search out the depth of prophecy, and in a certain way had said:
'In the forty days seek Him in whom you may also be able to find the three days; the former you will find in the ascension, the latter in His resurrection.' On account of which it could most fittingly be signified by either number—of which the one through Jonah the prophet, the other through the prophecy of the Seventy interpreters, yet one and the same Spirit said it. I avoid prolixity, that I may not demonstrate this through the many passages in which the Seventy interpreters are thought to differ from the Hebrew truth, and, being well understood, are found to be in agreement.
Whence I too, according to my own small measure, following the footsteps of the apostles—because they too set down prophetic testimonies from both, that is, from the Hebrews and from the Septuagint—have thought that both authorities should be used, since both are one and divine. But now let us pursue, as we are able, the things that remain. CHAPTER XLV. That after the restoration of the temple the Jews ceased to have prophets, and that from then on, up to the nativity of Christ, they were afflicted with continual adversities, that it might be proved that the building of another temple had been promised by prophetic voices.
After the Jewish nation began to have no prophets, it doubtless became worse — at the very time, that is, when, after the temple had been restored following the captivity that took place in Babylon, it hoped that it would become better. For so that carnal people understood what was foretold through the prophet Haggai, who said: 'Great shall be the glory of this latter house, more than of the first'; which a little above he showed to have been said of the New Testament, where, openly promising Christ, he says: 'And I will move all nations, and the desired of all nations shall come.' In which passage the seventy translators, by prophetic authority, gave another meaning, suiting the body rather than the head, that is, the Church rather than Christ:
'They that are the Lord's elect shall come out of all nations' — that is, men, concerning whom Jesus himself says in the Gospel: 'Many are called, but few are chosen.' For of such elect ones from among the nations the house of God is built up through the New Testament with living stones, far more glorious than was that temple which was constructed by king Solomon and restored after the captivity. For this reason, therefore, that nation both had no prophets from that time onward and was afflicted with many disasters by foreign kings and by the Romans themselves, lest it should suppose this prophecy of Haggai to have been fulfilled in that restoration of the temple.
For not long after, when Alexander came, it was subjugated; and although no devastation took place then — since they did not dare to resist him, and therefore, being most easily appeased, received him as their subjects — yet the glory of that house was not so great as it had been under the free power of their own kings. Alexander indeed offered sacrifices in the temple of God, not turned to His worship by true piety, but in impious vanity thinking that He must be worshipped together with false gods. Then Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, as I mentioned above, after the death of Alexander carried off captives thence into Egypt, whom his successor Ptolemy Philadelphus most kindly released and sent home; through whom it came about, as I narrated a little before, that we have the Scriptures of the seventy translators.
Then they were crushed by the wars which are set forth in the books of the Maccabees. After this they were taken captive by Ptolemy, king of Alexandria, who was surnamed Epiphanes; then by Antiochus, king of Syria, they were compelled through many and most grievous evils to worship idols, and the temple itself was filled with the sacrilegious superstitions of the nations. Yet their most valiant leader Judas, who was also called Maccabeus, having driven out the commanders of Antiochus, cleansed it from all that defilement of idolatry. Not long after, however, a certain Alcimus, through ambition, although he was a stranger to the priestly line — which was a sacrilege — was made high priest.
From this point, after about fifty years, during which nevertheless they had no peace — although they accomplished some things even prosperously — Aristobulus was the first among them to assume the diadem and to become both king and high priest. For before that, from the time they returned from the Babylonian captivity and the temple was restored, they had not kings but leaders or princes; although even he who is a king may be called a prince, from the principate of commanding, and a leader, because he is the conductor of an army; yet it does not follow that whoever are princes or leaders can also be called kings — which this Aristobulus was. He was succeeded by Alexander, himself also king and high priest, who is reported to have reigned cruelly over his own people.
After him his wife Alexandra was queen of the Jews, and from her time onward more grievous evils befell them. For the sons of this Alexandra, Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, contending with each other for the kingdom, provoked Roman forces against the Israelite nation. For Hyrcanus sought help from them against his brother. By then Rome had already subjugated Africa, had subjugated Greece, and ruling widely over other parts of the world also, as though unable to bear its own weight, it had in a manner broken itself by its own greatness. For it had come to grave domestic seditions, and thence to the Social wars and soon to the Civil wars, and had so shaken and worn itself out that the state of its commonwealth had to be changed, so that it should be ruled by kings — and this loomed near.
Pompey therefore, the most illustrious prince of the Roman people, having entered Judea with an army, captured the city, opened the temple — not by the devotion of a suppliant, but by the right of a conqueror. And to the Holy of Holies, which none but the high priest was permitted to enter, he drew near, not as a worshipper, but as a profaner; and having confirmed Hyrcanus in the high priesthood, and set over the subjugated nation as guardian Antipater — those whom they then called procurators — he led Aristobulus away with him in chains. From that time the Jews also began to be tributaries of the Romans. Afterward Cassius too plundered the temple. Then, after a few years, they even came to have Herod, a foreigner, as their king, during whose reign Christ was born.
For now had come the fullness of time, signified by the prophetic Spirit through the mouth of the patriarch Jacob, where he says: 'There shall not fail a prince from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until he come for whom it is laid up, and he is the expectation of the nations.' Therefore a prince of the Jews from among the Jews did not fail until this Herod, whom they first received as a foreign king. The time, then, had now come for Him to come for whom it was laid up — that is, what was promised in the New Testament — that He Himself should be the expectation of the nations. But it could not come to pass that the nations should expect Him to come, as we behold Him being expected to come to execute judgment in the splendour of His power, unless they first believed in Him when He came to undergo judgment in the humility of patience.
CHAPTER 46. Of the birth of our Saviour, according to which the Word was made flesh, and of the dispersion of the Jews among all nations, as had been prophesied. Therefore, while Herod was reigning in Judea, and among the Romans, the state of the commonwealth having now been changed, Caesar Augustus held imperial sway and through him the world was at peace, Christ was born according to the preceding prophecy in Bethlehem of Judah — a man made manifest from a human virgin, a God hidden from God the Father. For thus the prophet had foretold: 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,' which is interpreted: 'God with us.'
He, in order to commend God in Himself, performed many miracles, of which the Gospel Scripture contains certain ones, as much as seemed sufficient for proclaiming Him. The first of these is that He was born so marvellously; the last, that with His body raised from the dead He ascended into heaven. But the Jews, who slew Him and would not believe in Him — because it behooved Him to die and rise again — being more unhappily devastated by the Romans and utterly uprooted from their kingdom, where now foreigners ruled over them, and dispersed throughout the lands (since indeed they are nowhere lacking), are by their own Scriptures a testimony to us that we have not invented the prophecies concerning Christ;
which prophecies very many of them, considering both before His Passion and especially after His resurrection, believed in Him; concerning whom it was foretold: 'If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.' But the rest were blinded, concerning whom it was foretold: 'Let their table become before them a snare, and a recompense, and a stumbling-block. Let their eyes be darkened that they see not; and bow down their back always.' Accordingly, since they do not believe our Scriptures, their own are fulfilled in them, which they read while blind. Unless perhaps someone should say that the Christians invented those prophecies concerning Christ which are produced under the name of the Sibyl or of others — if there are any such — which do not pertain to the people of the Jews.
For us indeed those suffice which are produced from the codices of our enemies, whom we recognize, on account of this very testimony which they unwillingly bear to us by having and preserving those same codices, to be themselves dispersed throughout all nations, wherever the Church of Christ is spread abroad. For a prophecy in the Psalms, which they also read, was set forth beforehand on this matter, where it is written: 'My God, His mercy shall go before me; my God hath shown me concerning mine enemies: Slay them not, lest at any time they forget Thy law; scatter them in Thy power.' God therefore has shown to the Church, in its enemies the Jews, the grace of His mercy, since, as the apostle says, 'their offense is salvation to the Gentiles';
and therefore He did not slay them, that is, He did not destroy in them what makes them Jews — although they were vanquished and oppressed by the Romans — lest, having forgotten the law of God, they should avail nothing for the testimony of which we are treating. Therefore it was too little to say: 'Slay them not, lest at any time they forget Thy law,' unless He also added: 'Scatter them'; because if, with this testimony of the Scriptures, they were only in their own land, and not everywhere, surely the Church, which is everywhere, could not have them in all nations as witnesses of the prophecies which were sent forth beforehand concerning Christ. CHAPTER 47. Whether before Christian times there were any outside the Israelite race who belonged to the fellowship of the heavenly city.
Wherefore whatever foreigner — that is, one not born of Israel nor received by that people into the canon of the sacred writings — is read to have prophesied anything concerning Christ, if it comes or shall come to our knowledge, can be cited by us as an addition; not as though it were necessary even if it be lacking, but because it is not incongruously believed that there were even among other nations men to whom this mystery was revealed, and who were also impelled to predict these things, whether they were partakers of the same grace or strangers to it, but were taught by evil angels — whom we know to have confessed even the present Christ, whom the Jews did not acknowledge.
Nor do I think that the Jews themselves dare to contend that no one belonged to God except the Israelites, from the time the offspring of Israel began to be — after his elder brother was rejected. For indeed there was no other people that was properly called the people of God; yet they cannot deny that there were also among other nations certain men belonging, not by an earthly but by a heavenly fellowship, to the true Israelites, citizens of the country above: because if they deny it, they are most easily refuted by the holy and wondrous man Job, who was neither a native nor a proselyte — that is, a sojourner — of the people of Israel, but, deriving his lineage from the Idumean nation, was there born and there died;
who is so praised by the divine oracle that, as regards righteousness and piety, no man of his times is set equal to him. Although we do not find his times in the Chronicles, yet we gather from his book — which the Israelites, on account of its merit, received into canonical authority — that he was three generations later than Israel. And I do not doubt that it was divinely provided that from this one example we should know that there could be, even among other nations, those who lived according to God and were pleasing to Him, belonging to the spiritual Jerusalem. Which must be believed to have been granted to no one,
except him to whom was divinely revealed the one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who, as about to come in the flesh, was thus foretold to the ancient saints, just as He has been announced to us as having come; so that one and the same faith, through Him, may lead to God all who are predestined to the city of God, the house of God, the temple of God. But whatever prophecies of others are produced concerning the grace of God through Christ may be thought to have been fabricated by Christians. Therefore nothing is firmer for convincing any outsiders whatsoever, if they should contend about this matter, and for making them ours if they are rightly wise, than that those divine predictions about Christ be brought forward which are written in the codices of the Jews;
by whom, torn from their proper seats and on account of this testimony dispersed throughout the whole world, the Church of Christ has everywhere grown. CHAPTER 48. That the prophecy of Haggai, in which he said that the glory of the house of God would be greater than the first had been, was fulfilled not in the rebuilding of the temple, but in the Church of Christ. This house of God is of greater glory than that first one constructed of timber and stones and other precious things and metals. Not therefore was the prophecy of Haggai fulfilled in the restoration of that temple. For from the time it was restored, it is never shown to have had so great a glory as it had in the time of Solomon;
nay rather, it is shown that the glory of that house was first diminished by the cessation of prophecy, then by such great disasters of the nation itself, even to its final destruction, which was wrought by the Romans, as those things which are recorded above testify. But this house, pertaining to the New Testament, is assuredly of so much greater glory as the living stones are better, by which, as believers and renewed, it is built. But for this reason it was signified through the restoration of that temple, because that very renewal of that building signifies, by prophetic utterance, the other testament, which is called the New. What therefore God said through the prophet just mentioned:
'And I will give peace in this place' — by the place that signifies must be understood that One who is signified by it; so that, since by that place being restored the Church was signified, which was to be built through Christ, nothing else is to be received by what is said: 'I will give peace in this place,' than 'I will give peace in the place which this place signifies.' Since all things that signify seem in some manner to sustain the persons of those things which they signify; as it was said by the apostle: 'The Rock was Christ,' since that rock, of which this was said, signified indeed Christ. Greater, therefore, is the glory of this house of the New Testament than of the house of the former Old Testament, and then it will appear greater when it shall be dedicated.
For then shall come the desired of all nations, as it is read in the Hebrew. For His first coming was not yet the desired of all nations. For they did not know whom they ought to desire, in whom they had not believed. Then also, according to the seventy translators (since that too is a prophetic meaning), 'there shall come the elect of the Lord out of all nations.' For then truly there shall come none but the elect, concerning whom the apostle says: 'As He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.' For He Himself, the architect, who said: 'Many are called, but few are chosen,' was about to show, not from those who, having been called, came in such a way as to be cast out of the banquet, but from the elect, the house built up, which will thereafter fear no ruin.
But now, when even those fill the churches whom the winnowing will separate as on a threshing-floor, the glory of this house does not appear so great as it shall then appear, when whosoever shall be there shall be there forever. CHAPTER 49. Of the indiscriminate increase of the Church, in which in this world many reprobates are mingled with the elect.
In this malignant world, therefore, in these evil days, where the Church through present lowliness prepares for future exaltation, and is trained by the goads of fears, the torments of sorrows, the troubles of labours, the perils of temptations, rejoicing in hope alone — when it rejoices soundly — many reprobates are mingled with the good, and both are gathered together as in the Gospel net, and in this world, as in a sea, both, enclosed in the nets, swim indiscriminately, until the shore is reached, where the evil shall be separated from the good, and in the good, as in His temple, God shall be all in all. Accordingly, we now recognize the voice of Him who spoke in the Psalm and said: 'I have declared and have spoken; they are multiplied above number,' as being fulfilled.
This comes to pass now, ever since He announced and spoke — first through the mouth of His forerunner John, then through His own mouth — saying: 'Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' He chose disciples, whom He also named apostles, humbly born, unhonoured, unlettered, so that whatever great thing they should be and should do, He Himself might be and do it in them. He had among them one whom, using evil well, He might both fulfil the appointed purpose of His own Passion and furnish to His Church an example of evils to be borne.