The Jews interpret according to the letter, not according to... Reason exhorts us, brethren, a little... against the Jews... with your holiness... And first this must be shown by me: that this people is reproved from the beginning of the world by divine Providence, and the succeeding people is chosen and taken up from the nations, that is, the Christian people; and that what we say may be the more surely proved, let us take our beginning from the very first man, Adam. Adam begot Cain and Abel. Cain, the elder-born, signified the people of the Jews. He is rejected because of his crime, and Abel, the younger-born, is taken up, who showed forth the Christian people; for God rejected the sacrifices of Cain, and accepted the sacrifice of Abel.
Abel himself is slain by Cain; and another son of Adam is born in his place, named Seth. Consider the mystery. Abel is interpreted as 'mourning,' Seth as 'resurrection.' Therefore in these two younger brothers... because it is commanded, and that he leave his former errors and old vices, and go forth from thence, and be made into a great nation, that is, into a faithful Christian people, spread throughout the whole world; whence the Scripture announced, saying: You shall be the nations at the head, O Christian, but the unbelieving people at the tail, that is, the Jews. Abraham begot two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.
Ishmael was the elder-born, from the handmaid Hagar; Isaac the younger-born, from the free woman Sarah — which our apostle Paul, who himself also had believed from among the Jews, said: We are now not sons of the bondwoman, but of the free (Gal. 4)... you see that the former is reproved, and the latter is taken up; and Jacob himself blesses the sons of Joseph, his younger son. Now you understand that in Joseph too, the younger son, he showed forth the Christian people.
Jacob therefore blesses those two boys, and places his left hand upon the head of the elder-born, and his right upon the head of the younger, that he might show that the younger would be the more honourable and the greater. Moses too receives the tablets, and because of the fault of the people casts them down; a second time he receives others written out, and keeps them, and to the sacred volumes... 'A prophet from among your people and from your brethren; as me, hear him. For it shall be: every soul that shall not have heeded that prophet shall perish from among its people' (Deut. 18). He called Christ a prophet, because He is the prophet of His Father and God. But He is also the Lord and God of all creation: of Him again Moses said in the book of Genesis (chapter 1):
In the beginning God made heaven and earth; here he indicates the Son by 'the beginning,' in whom God the Father made heaven and earth — which our apostle Paul, attesting the continuation of Moses, said: that in Christ all things were created which are in the heavens and which are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions (Col. 1), and the rest which follow there. In the beginning therefore God made heaven and earth. The Beginning is Christ, who said through Solomon: The Lord created me the beginning of His ways for His works (Prov. 8)... or the circle of the earth was founded... He might prepare the heaven... Christ the Lord, the Son of God, is Himself... He was saying...
'Let there be a firmament,' and the firmament was made; 'Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, that they may shine upon the earth,' and He made two lights, a greater and a lesser: the greater light for the beginning of the day, and the lesser light for the beginning of the night (Gen. 1). Therefore God said, and God made. Hear further: God says, Let us make man to our image and likeness; and God made man, to the image of God He made him (Gen. 1). Perhaps the Jew says: God spoke to the angels. He is refuted by that which is said, 'and God made man'; for it does not say the angels made him, but God, it says, made man. God said, and God made; that is, the Father commanded, and the Son fulfilled. And consider that also which is written (Gen.):
concerning Abraham (Gen. 18), that God appeared to him at the oak of Mamre; and afterward the Scripture has (ibid.), in the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, that the Lord rained fire and brimstone from the Lord upon those same cities. Therefore there is the Father and the Son, from which Father — that is, by whose command — the Son rained fire and brimstone. In the Son therefore God made heaven and earth, who was before heaven and earth: were not the angels, archangels, and all the spiritual virtues and powers made before? Therefore, when it says, In the beginning God made heaven and earth, it is declared to have been said in Christ; in whose person David too said: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of His mouth all their host (Ps. 32);
this is the Son of God, of whom again David himself said in the second psalm: The Lord said to me: You are my Son, this day have I begotten You. See the second mystery: in the second psalm this is said... the second Son... but say... most certainly God begot the Son whom He begot, not as men do, but as it befitted God to beget — impassibly, incorruptibly, from Himself; one begot one, alone the alone, God God, king king, unbegotten the unbegotten, Father the Son, author the Word, creator the creator, eternal the eternal, Spirit the Spirit, light light, splendour splendour, holy the holy, good the good, merciful the merciful, perfect the perfect. To this Son again David spoke, saying:
Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a rod of equity is the rod of Your kingdom. You have loved justice, and hated iniquity; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You (Ps. 44). See that, speaking to God, he said to Him: God, Your God, has anointed You — that is, the Father has anointed You, the Son, with that ointment of eternal gladness, of the eternal sacrament and heavenly mystery; or further... The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand (Ps. 109)... this king had a Lord, to whom His own Lord God had said: Sit at my right hand. Who is this Lord to whom God the Father had said this, but our Lord Christ, His Son? For hear again the Father saying of His Christ: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ;
His enemies I will clothe with confusion (Ps. 131). I have prepared a lamp for my Christ, that is, the Church shining and burning with His light, the number of the faithful who, having received in the heart the light of truth and of belief, do not forsake the darkness of unbelief and ignorance. I have prepared a lamp for my Christ: again in holy John we understand this said — the lamp enlightening the people concerning this Lord and Saviour and concerning His coming in the flesh that was to be. And most holy Isaiah spoke: Be strengthened, he says, you slackened hands and feeble knees; and after a little he says: Our God will render judgment; He will come and save us: then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear (Isa. 35), and the rest.
And Baruch said of Christ: This is our God; no other shall be esteemed beside Him. He found out all the way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved; after this He was seen upon earth, and conversed among men (Baruch 3): so that it was not God the Father who was seen and conversed among men, but the Son of God, of whose coming in incarnation Isaiah again announced, saying: God has revealed His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all nations shall see that One upon the earth, the salvation from God (Isa. 52). And still he repeats again and says: Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bear a son, and you shall call His name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us (Isa.
7). 'God with us,' that is, God in man, the Word in flesh, majesty in a body. He descended like rain upon a fleece (Ps. 71); not with pomp, not with din; but the heavenly King entered the world in humility; He who was to give the triumphs of immortality and peace to all took up a human body, that He might for a time overshadow His own splendour through the veil of the body, and that God might speak to man through the intermediary of a man. In that temple of the body God was present, that He might make mortal man immortal. But the Jew does not believe, nor does the pagan believe, nor do they believe that a virgin bore without the union of a man.
Let them hear and believe concerning the nativity of the Saviour from the Virgin, that the holy angel sent from God the Father said to that most holy Virgin Mary herself: The Holy Spirit, he said, shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; therefore also that which shall be born of you, being holy, shall be called the Son of God (Luke 2). That immaculate Spirit, that is, the Son of God, took human flesh from holy Mary; pure, holy, secure in Himself, by His own power and possibility He made flesh for Himself.
For if He granted to certain birds that they should conceive from the wind or from the dust without males, and they perceived this, how much more could He, as has been said, fashion a body for Himself; and if again birds bring forth living chicks from eggs by the overshadowing of their wings, and the earth without intercourse brings forth certain animals, such as worms and the rest, how much more could God, by wondrous ways among men, build for Himself the temple of His own body. For had He willed it, He could have made Himself a body even from stone, or wood, or water, or earth — even as He who had first formed the man Adam from that clay of the earth — so as to take upon Himself human flesh, that He might show He had come for the sake of men.
For He willed to be born after our likeness, and to die, and to rise again, so that He might show forth in Himself both that we shall die and again rise, and might reveal to us the hope of the resurrection to come. But the Jew says: 「Therefore God had to be born of a woman.」 The flesh of Christ was given from a woman, which God made, nor can the majesty of Christ be defiled in the flesh; for if the shining sun is not soiled by any touch whatsoever, much more could the Lord of the sun not be defiled, though the clean touched what was clean. This same One we have as the guide of our journey, for He is the way to the Father; the prince of light, for He is the truth, who has poured into us the light of truth; the author of salvation, for that which was made in Him is life, who together with the Father gives life to all things:
through Him we ever give thanks to God the Father, brethren. But the unbelieving Jews still dare from time to time both to wish to disparage the Christian faith and to insult the faithful people of God; wherefore the divine volumes must again be reviewed by us, which may confound them by open truth, so that they may understand and clearly perceive themselves to be without hope and without faith. These are the Jews whom holy Stephen rebuked with a clear voice, saying: 「You stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so also do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of this Just One, and you are His betrayers and murderers」 (Acts VII).
These things holy Stephen said, concerning whom the blessed Apostle Paul also says: 「Ever learning, and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. For as Jannes and Mambres withstood Moses, so also these resist the truth, men corrupt in mind, reprobate concerning the faith」 (II Tim. III). For they say: 「We have circumcision, and we are the sons of Abraham」; to whom the Lord rightly said: 「If you were Abraham's sons, you would surely do the works of Abraham.」 「We have circumcision,」 they say; to whom we reply: 「Would that you had the fragrance of Abraham's faith, and not of your own faithlessness! You are rather sons of vipers, bearing poison within your very selves:」
you who bring death upon your parents, and by that very deed by which you kill others, prepare destruction for your own selves. Concerning you, O Jews, the prophet David says: 「They have gone astray from the womb, they have spoken false things. Their fury is according to the likeness of the serpent」 (Ps. LVII). And our Apostle Paul says: 「Whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things」 (Phil. III). Therefore they went astray from the womb, they spoke false things, their fury is after the likeness of the serpent: who with viperish bites shedding the vitals and the blood of your parents, and having slipped away by the slime of your wickedness, wallowed in the wounds of others;
and you who, by despising the precepts of the law through the various offenses of your crimes, have fallen, as it were through many precipices, by diverse mischances. See now, if you can, how foul and how base is he who defiles himself with the blood of others. For we read that... which... contains no understanding of my light, nor... the Lord says to them: 「You are born of the devil your father, and the desires of your father you wish to do」 (John VIII). For the devil too, changed into a serpent, with lying tongues deceived by factious malice the pious and untutored innocence of the new-made men in paradise: whose madness these also have followed, a serpentine brood, and even now they strive to deny Christ the Son of God.
Against these, with the help of the Lord Christ Himself, we have taken up this disputation, and to them it must further be said: What is it that you claim for yourselves, calling Abraham your father, and asserting that you have received his circumcision? Abraham was justified by faith, not by circumcision. For thus says the Scripture: 「Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness, and he was called the friend of God」 (Rom. IV). Therefore Abraham was not justified out of circumcision, but out of faith. For he believed the word of God, and was justified, and obtained a blessing from God, both he himself and the seed of his faith.
For consider, lest you suppose circumcision to be the sign of the faithful: before Abraham all the saints were uncircumcised, and by purity of mind they pleased the Lord, and rather showed forth in themselves a Christian people. Run through the order set down in the sacred Scriptures, and you will find that all are just as we say. First Adam himself, who was fashioned by the hands of God, remained uncircumcised; then Abel the just, Enos and Enoch, Noe and Melchisedech the priest of the Most High God: all just, and, as we say, neither circumcised in the flesh, nor did they observe distinctions of foods.
For as to Abraham, that he is said to have received circumcision — that circumcision has no reward of salvation, but was given as a sign of the race... the sons of Israel, secondly... it now had, first the circumcised... but it ought to be understood spiritually, that through the law, that is through the precepts of the law, one ought to be circumcised from the worship of idols, and secondly to be circumcised through the Gospel. Still the Jews say: 「We are the sons of Abraham」; to whom we say: You are sons of Abraham, but of the handmaid, of whom it is written: 「Cast out the handmaid and her son; for the son of the handmaid shall not be heir with the son of the free woman」 (Gen. XXI, Gal. IV); we in the glory of God are sons of the free woman.
Ishmael is your father, from whom you draw your race: our father is Isaac, from whom we draw our race. 「In Isaac,」 He says, 「shall your seed be called」; that most holy Isaac, whom to his longing parents... concerning whom it is said: 「For in your seed shall all nations be blessed」 (Gen. XX); He did not say 「in your seeds,」 which is Christ. This is the most holy Isaac, who patiently was led to the sacrifice, the chosen offspring of his most merciful father; who, as we have said, bearing the image of Christ, neither contradicted his begetter's command, nor refused to undergo the sacrifice. Therefore this one is proved to be our father; your Jerusalem, the earthly city, is your mother; our Jerusalem, the heavenly city, is our mother; that one is yours, which has perished;
this one of ours, which abides forever; you the earlier, we the following; for Ishmael too was earlier, then Isaac: for those who are first are last, and those who are last are first. It is written: 「The nations shall be at the head, but the unbelieving people at the tail」 (Deut. XXVIII). For Isaac himself begot two sons, Esau and Jacob, concerning whom it had been said to Rebecca the wife of Isaac by a divine oracle: 「Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be divided from your belly; and people shall overcome people, and the elder shall serve the younger; for Jacob,」 He says, 「I loved, but Esau I held in hatred」 (Gen. XXV). But this has already been mentioned above. For Jacob himself also is described to have had two wives, one Leah the elder, weak in the eyes;
the other Rachel, the younger, beautiful: that Leah bore the figure of the Synagogue, weak, as has been said, in the eyes. Why weak in the eyes? Because the sight of the Synagogue was failing, and it often bewailed itself in unbelieving sons. But this Rachel, who bore the figure of the Church, of whom it is written: 「Beautiful are your eyes as those of doves」 (Song I): and again our Apostle Paul says of her: 「having no spot or wrinkle」 (Eph. V), 「or any such thing」: her sight was clear and spiritual. For understand also how that which the Apostle speaks in mystery befits the Christian people: 「The first man,」 he says, 「was of the earth, earthy; but the second man is of heaven, heavenly」 (I Cor. XV). Such as the earthy man is, such also are the earthy;
and such as the heavenly is, such also are the heavenly; and the law which is received according to the letter kills, but the spirit gives life (II Cor. III). For Moses, as we have recalled, taking the first tablets, cast them down broken, in order to show that your stony heart was broken and reprobate; but that of Christians was fitted to and to be kept by the divine laws. Whence the Scripture says of the Christian people: 「Who show the work of the law written in their hearts」 (Rom. II): Knowing all these things, both from the law and the prophets, and considering yet greater things, holy the Apostle Paul separated himself from you, nor was he willing to bear the yoke with unbelievers; for there is no fellowship of light with darkness, nor part of the faithful with the unfaithful (II Cor. VI);
he turned himself above all to Christ, because he had been admonished by Him... of belief... to depart... the Christian people... But the Jews say... the sign of salvation among us... in the sign of the Lord all alike, males and females, are marked, we are marked with the sign of the Lord upon the forehead, over the two doorposts, with the blood of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, concerning which it had already then been written in the law; which is recognized to have been fulfilled in the holy Gospel, when you cried out, saying: 「His blood be upon us and upon our children」 (Matt. XXVII). But for us it befits to say this in a saving way: 「His blood be upon us and upon
our children」 — for you unto condemnation, but for us unto salvation; because you speak it with one purpose, we with another understanding; you in raging, we in praying; you in insulting, we in humbly beseeching; you out of hatred, we out of love; you as those who grieve, but we as those who ever rejoice. You chose the robber, for every creature turns to what is like itself; we chose to serve the Lord. 「We therefore,」 says the Apostle, 「are the Lord's」; you have followed the robber who reproached the Lord, we have followed the robber who adored and confessed the Lord upon the cross: 「Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.」 To whom the Lord said: 「Amen, I say to you: today you shall be with Me in paradise」 (Luke XXIII).
O that blessed robber, who suddenly merited so great a holiness, and under death itself passed over to the light! And those two robbers themselves, the one showed forth your image, the other ours. You killed the Lord, and you rejoice: you did indeed kill Him, yet you did not kill Him — nevertheless you killed Him in will, but you did not kill Him in truth, because Christ abides forever. His body indeed lay in the tomb, but Christ was reigning in heaven. For He could not be enclosed... He who is not enclosed in the tomb with the body, much more could He not be enclosed by divinity. Therefore Christ lives forever; even as the holy angel Gabriel said to the glorious Mary:
「He shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end」 (Luke I): and in the seventy-first psalm it is said of Him: 「In His days shall righteousness arise, and abundance of peace.」 When He said: 「Whoever strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the other also; and to him who wishes to contend with you at law and to take away your tunic, leave him your cloak also.」 What is more just, what more profitable, than to overcome the impatient by patience, and to be oppressed rather by losses than to sin by gaining! For these are the precepts of righteousness of the Lord and Saviour set down in the holy Gospel. And that it may not be long to say all, after a little there follows: 「and abundance of peace, until the moon be taken away」 (Ps. LXXI).
Abundance of peace, because He Himself is the purest fountain of peace, in whom there are no turbulent strifes, no bitterness of malice, but all fullness of sweetness and all tranquility of goodness. Concerning this One David the prophet said in another place: 「Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. Blessed is the man who hopes in Him」 (Ps. XXXIII); for the Lord said: 「My peace I give to you, My peace I leave to you. For in this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you love one another」 (John XIV). And again He said: 「Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven」 (Matt. V).
「And abundance,」 he says... But afterward it is exalted and lifted up, when by the help of the Lord it is led to the heavenly kingdoms. There follows in the psalm: 「And He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth」 (Ps. LXXI): that is, throughout all the nations, and through the whole world, wherever the compass of the Ocean, spread far and wide, extends, and encloses the boundaries of all lands. There follows: 「In His sight the Ethiopians shall fall down, and His enemies shall lick the earth」 (Ibid.). Those Ethiopians are the spirits of darkness who, in the sight of the Lord, that is at His coming, are troubled...
but they are said to lick the earth, just as these also... and do they lick the earth? That is, do they love the earthly letter and carnal cunning, but do not seek the spiritual grace? There follows in the psalm: 「The kings of the earth and the isles shall offer gifts. The kings of the Arabs and of Saba shall bring presents」 (Ibid.). East therefore and West — which was again made manifest in the holy Gospel, when the Magi came bearing gifts, gold, frankincense, myrrh: offering gold as precious faith to a king; sweet frankincense, a sacrifice of praise, as to God; myrrh for the token and homage of burial. Likewise gold to the king, frankincense to the priest, myrrh for the sacrifice: because Christ the Lord is both king, and priest, and sacrifice.
Because He is king, He Himself says: 「But I am appointed king by Him」 (Ps. II); that He is priest: 「You,」 says the Father to Him, 「are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech」 (Ps. IX). That He is sacrifice, the Apostle Paul says, 「who offered Himself an oblation and a victim to God for an odor of sweetness」 (Eph. V). Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold the king seeks, that is, chosen hearts; frankincense God seeks, chaste and good prayers for an odor of good fragrance; myrrh for the burial of His saints. Therefore from every side the peoples brought gifts to Christ. There follows in the psalm: 「And all the kings of the earth shall adore Him; all nations shall serve Him」 (Ps. LXXI): which we see fulfilled;
for everywhere the name of the Lord Christ is adored by all kings — at least by Christian ones — and by all nations. But if there are any kings or any nations who refuse to adore, just as you Jews do, there remains the eternal prison, there remains the judgment of God: 「God,」 says the prophet, 「shall come manifestly, our God, and shall not keep silence」 (Ps. XLIX); He who came hidden in humility, shall come manifest in power. Then shall all flesh see Him, that is every man, for we shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ, that each one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he has done, whether good or evil (Rom. XIV); for in that very psalm at its head he says: 「God, give Your judgment to the king, and Your righteousness to the king's son」 (Ps. LXXI);
for the king and the king's son is the same Lord Christ; and in the conclusion of the psalm he says: 「All the earth shall be filled with His glory: so be it, so be it」 (Ibid.). And we too say, consenting to the holy prophet with the Lord's own voice: 「Amen, amen,」 that is, 「truly, faithfully.」 And this repetition of the word contains in itself a confirmation of the truth. Thanks be to God. Therefore the Jews are clearly convicted: with God's help let us so speak against them, not with zeal to harm, that we might destroy them once vanquished — far be it from us; a spiritual battle is waged for the salvation of men: our weapons are not carnal, but mighty in God. And so we desire to save them and to turn them under our king Christ. Let us therefore not seek strife, for we seek the truth;
we serve as soldiers under the peaceful king, and we follow the camp of peace. And therefore, as I have said, we wish to lead them from the tempestuous billows of error to the harbor of salvation, and through the court of truth to bring them into the royal house of our Lord, that from enemies they may become friends, and from antichrists Christians. Let them see the spiritual pasture; let them see, if they are worthy, the heavenly banquet; let them see the Lord's table, and sing with us together with the most holy prophet David, saying: 「The Lord feeds me, and I shall want for nothing; in a place of pasture there has He set me」 (Ps. XXII); and again: 「How lovely are Your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord」 (Ps. LXXXIII).