Preface to the Altercation of Jason and Papiscus

I. Although I know, most holy Vigilius, that very many among the gentiles, turned away from the order and reason of truth, wander in blindness of mind so that they do not come to know the Lord; yet I am more acquainted with the madness of the Jewish people against the name of the Lord, persisting even now with stubborn hardness of heart, in the inborn iniquity of their fathers; turning away from true salvation, and not seeking the giver of eternal life: so that those who are bound by the sins of their ancient stock with equal desert of inborn wickedness, might at least, believing even late, be converted to the fear of the Lord and be freed from their iniquities by full satisfaction of repentance.

But the inborn irreligious perfidy of the fathers persists and endures still, and always, I think, will endure unto the succeeding generation; which, strengthened by the madness of unbelief against hatred of the name of the Lord, can neither be corrected to acknowledge the truth, nor be taught and persuaded to the fear of God by His own warnings. But when the Lord teaches and shows, saying: I am the light of the world: he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life: what evil reason is there to neglect the light of life divinely shown, and to prefer in blindness of mind to choose the darkness of death, so as to show, by the free and unlawful perdition of their own will of damnation, that they are unwilling even against God to accept those things which are profitable?

In accordance with which the Holy Spirit also speaks through the voice of the Lord rebuking Jerusalem, because it was unwilling to be gathered, though God willed to gather it, and manifests that the goodness of God continually wills to come to the aid of sinners: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not? So plainly is the contumacy of the perfidious people marked by the voice of God, that it is shown to have always despised even its own salvation against the clement mercy of the Lord. Hence the Prophet, offering and instilling the benevolence of God with the exhortation of his preaching, proclaims and urges, saying: Return to me, and I will return to you, saith the Lord.

Another likewise, showing that the mercy of the Lord remains everlasting, added, saying: I desire not the death of him that dieth, but rather that he should return and live, saith the Lord. II. What is it then to return to the Lord, but by believing in Christ, through him who is the way of coming to the Father, to be reconciled to God and able to be saved? But how can they return to God who were unwilling to believe him through whom is the knowledge of and return to God, as he proclaimed the will of God? Or how could they appease God by any satisfaction, who chose rather to pursue with sacrilegious assault him who is the satisfaction and propitiation for us before the Father? For if: We have Christ as our Advocate with God the Father, we ought with careful fear to do those things which he taught and warned us, and which he is to speak before the Father.

Therefore we who, with a mind inclined to the fear of the Lord, press on in the warnings of his commandments, and have conceived the faith and belief of a religious and venerable heart from fear of him; what else ought we to follow, what to desire, what more to will and hold, than that, with all the night of the old mind driven away from us and the darkness of our former life wiped clean, mindful of the Lord's saving commandments and retaining the promises of eternal life, we return to his warnings and walk in that light which he has shown, with faith made firm? So that we who once, ignorant of future salvation, entangled in the errors and darkness of our former life, went astray, now illuminated by the brightness of his true light, and with the boundary of a better life shown and laid open to us, may hold fast the commandments of the Lord to be followed and carried out.

III. This light of saving life that has arisen for us, this aid born for the restoration of man by the providence and compassion of God the Father, the Magi, coming first from the eastern region and openly seeking with foreknowing proclamation the king of the Jews with a star as their guide, and also bringing gifts, showed forth to all by their attested inquiry. And lest it should be hidden from any who he was, they fell upon their knees and adored the child they had found; as the Gospel attests, saying: Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, Magi from the East came to Jerusalem, saying: Where is he that is born king of the Jews?

For we have seen his star in the East, and are come to adore him: testifying, that is, the truth concerning him, that even a star had been shown to them as a sign and indication of his birth; by whose guidance, as the Magi proclaimed and affirmed that he had been born, he was to be believed in Jerusalem. Simeon also, the just man who, placed in blindness, had been warned by a divine oracle that he would not die before he had seen Christ; when the mother was carrying the infant into the temple in the presence of all the people, and he had perceived in the spirit that the one born was Christ, he saw the child received into his hands; and blessing God, said in the sight and hearing of all: Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace: because my eyes have seen thy salvation.

Simeon announced that what he had heard while blind had been fulfilled in evident truth; and the truth which he had seen upon receiving the light, he proclaimed openly to the people by blessing God. For he had seen it for this purpose, that he might report it, and by his revelation show that Christ had been born, and instruct the first beginnings of the perfidious people's unbelief.

IV. Nor does the truth of the heavenly Scriptures bear only this testimony concerning him, but the Holy Spirit also beforehand, through the prophets, openly proclaimed with the knowledge of all minds that his coming into this world was to be. Nor is there any pretext of excuse for unbelievers, either that they did not know the Son of God Christ, or that they did not know that the coming of the Saviour was to be; as David makes plain, saying: Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There are no speeches nor words, whose voices are not heard. Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. In the sun he hath set his tabernacle: that is, in manifest light, he showed himself openly to have come; and through the preaching of the prophets he in some manner confirmed to all the manifestation of his presence.

This also Isaiah, through whom the Lord showed his presence with clear manifestation of announcement, prophesies and says: I myself who spoke, am here: that is, I who had spoken beforehand through the prophets that I was to come before my advent, have now myself come, so that I myself as my own witness may make my presence manifest to all. What could be plainer? What more illustrious than this light? What truer can be said? So that he might be perceived as it were with the eyes; he who was already about to come showed, before he came, that he had come; and with unbelief blocking the minds of the perfidious people, no one recognized him as he came. As the same Isaiah proclaims in his first rebuke of the people, saying: The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not known me, and the people hath not understood me.

He appeared openly to all, as he himself foretold; and the manifest light of life shone forth upon those sitting in darkness; and the breast of the perfidious, possessed by injustice, setting aside and rejecting its own salvation, chose rather the darkness and blindness of heart.

V. The prophecy of all those who were allotted by the forewarning of the Holy Spirit to be the forerunners of the Lord's coming is frequent and manifest everywhere. The Holy Spirit teaches and shows in the Psalms that this light given to the world, and the day of salvation arisen for us, was also destined for the vivifying of those who believe in him, saying: The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes; this is the day which the Lord hath made: let us walk and rejoice in it. Paul the apostle also, commanding and teaching and forewarning us to walk in this day, says: For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed: the night is past; but the day is at hand.

Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light: let us walk honestly as in the day: that is, in Christ and in his commandments, illuminated by whose light and warnings, and found in the brightness of his day, we behold with a believing mind toward him the salvation that is near to us.

VI. That Christ is also the Sun for all who fear him, the prophet Malachi attests and promises, saying: But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise, and health in his wings: showing that salvation can be conferred upon us from no other source than in the passion of his cross, by which, stretching out his hands, he embraced all things of the world that he was to save, so that, converted to him in fear, we may believe in the eternity of life and be animated by the hope of his future kingdom.

For who is so dull and senseless, who so estranged from the understanding of his own salvation, that, unbelieving in the face of so many and so great testimonies of truth, he does not soften his heart hardened against pure faith with the understanding of truth, and, stripped of the darkness of his once mortal life, walking in the light of heavenly precepts, turn with an illuminated heart and with the full belief of mind and faith to the divine warnings and the saving commandments of the Lord to be carried out? So that he may know as God him whom the prophets proclaimed; may understand Christ who showed himself openly to have come into the world; may believe, by the divinely attesting Scriptures, the Son of God and God.

As he himself makes plain what eternal life is, saying: And this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent: teaching and showing that to know God is nothing other than to believe, and to open the eyes of the heart toward the Lord with an inclined, nay with the whole faith of the breast and devotion of mind. Hence it now comes about that by believing you understand, and by understanding what you believe, you behold it with an illuminated heart; as the same Lord himself also warns through Isaiah, saying: If you will not believe, you shall not understand. So easy and excellent and generous and abundant is the clemency from the Lord's goodness, that if anyone once turns himself wholly to him in full fear, admitted to the heavenly gift, his mind is straightway open to nothing but divine things, and lifting the eyes of the heart to heaven and things above, he beholds the light of Christ and the homeland of salvation.

VII. An example and proof of our fear and faith is shown from the faithful belief of the patriarch Abraham himself, who straightway believed with a simple mind the promise of God; and therefore merited to have it reckoned to him unto justice with fitting recompense. This God loves, this he seeks, this he graciously rewards and honors in his servants; namely, the simplicity of a pure heart by which we perceive him, the fear of love of the Lord by which we are proved, the believing faith of mind by which we are reckoned to justice. It befits us to follow this faith, to keep this fear of God; who, keeping the heavenly words and hoping in the divine promises, have merited to be called children of Abraham. This is confirmed by the testimony of the apostle Paul, who by the voice of God is called a vessel of election, saying: So Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice. Know therefore, that they who are of faith, these are the children of Abraham.

This the Jewish people, to whom from the beginning the warnings of the law spoke, was unwilling to keep by the hardness of an unbelieving mind and the madness of a perfidious heart; and therefore, by the desert of their distrust, they lost the name of children. Yet not all of the perfidious nation had their mind hardened by hatred against the name of the Lord, so as to be prevented from understanding the truth. And the Holy Spirit, that is, Christ our Lord, proceeding from God the Father, came to save what was lost of Israel; who, greater and mightier for bending the necks of the contumacious to the fear of his name and his power, converted to the knowledge of his brightness and glory those who even then persisted in the obstinate blindness of mind against the brightness of his light, as easily as he came, in the providence of his divine mercy, deigning to make all men saved.

VIII. For to say nothing of the minds of that then hard-hearted and impious people turned to the fear of the Lord, while the Lord Himself was preaching the Gospel; to pass over in silence the people of believers multiplied throughout the whole world and brought back by the preaching of His Apostles: there comes to mind that illustrious, memorable, and glorious disputation of JASON the Hebrew Christian and PAPISCUS the Alexandrian Jew; the stubborn hardness of a Jewish heart softened by brief admonition and gentle reproof; and the doctrine of Jason victorious in the heart of Papiscus through the infusion of the Holy Spirit: by which Papiscus, admitted to the understanding of the truth and formed unto the fear of the Lord by the mercy of the Lord Himself, both believed in Jesus Christ the Son of God, and besought Jason, asking that he might receive the seal.

This is attested by the written record of their debate, which has been set down in the Greek tongue, setting forth the arrangement and fullness of Christ as maintained and defended by Jason against Papiscus who opposed the truth. To the translation of this into Latin understanding, with God's aid giving life and the firmness of a helping faith, I approached without fear, preserving the proper meaning of the words; and for those who are strangers to the understanding of Greek learning, having rendered it entire both in the signification of the words and in the full disclosure of every meaning and truth, I have set it forth in the manner of the Latin tongue.

The proof of this labor I commit to you, dearest one, who are grounded in the knowledge of both languages, with earnest entreaty: that you, who are reverently devoted to the veneration of the Holy Spirit, by comparing the reading of both works, may examine the boldness of my modest rashness; and by the scrutiny of your judgment, whatever has been less well or perhaps improperly arranged by us, you may confirm and correct by the authority of the Holy Spirit who has flowed into your breast in a flood of heavenly grace; and let this be an embassy entrusted to you from our humility concerning this reading, and the first petition of love to be made known to you on our behalf. May you join my little measure of faith together with the instruction and training of your disciples.

And may you admit me—whom, though stationed in another part of this province, neither the length of the journey frightened from beholding your face, nor old age and the difficulty of a body already weary and worn delayed, but whom the animating service of the Lord and the pressing eager desire of hastening, with all tribulation of want and poverty likewise despised, and with whatever strength of power to come, the celebrated fame of your holiness brought hither—to the nearest charity of your love with the unanimity of brotherhood. And may you join and attach me equally to that love of yours which the Lord left to His disciples as a title of inheritance; that I may wait together with the brethren for the splendor of the grace of the light of Christ in the opening of your mouth. For you follow in your discourses the light of life, which the Lord showed, which Christ coming demonstrated Himself to be eternal life.

IX. Surely how joyful, how longed-for is that day for me, when by the mercy and favor of the Lord, with the summons long delayed, it shall come to pass that I bring forth this old age of mine; that I may deserve to be joined to the prayers of the saints earnestly and continually beseeching the Lord, that I may behold a martyr of Christ, that I may look upon you bearing the crown of justice which is laid up for you with the Lord. Yet you should not suppose that the glory of martyrdom is granted to you according to the present vow of faith. Then was the bestowal of this happiness conferred; then the Lord in just judgment chose a destined martyr, when He took you out from the flock of the just and, having assumed you to Himself, appointed you unexpectedly as priest at His own altar.

A truly illustrious and glorious election of calling, and a new, unheard-of, and wondrous happiness by the Lord's condescension: that one occupied with the necessities of an overseas journey should have come suddenly, unknowing and unaware, to the office destined for him; and that the time of your return should have been so balanced that, by the inspired swiftness of your coming, you might understand and recognize that the honor of the heavenly priesthood was destined for you above all others, and that you came and presented yourself, awaited by the command of the Lord, as one reserved for it.

For that the Lord might provide for His Church with the full tenderness of His compassion, while the hesitating people debated whom they should rather choose as bishop, Christ suddenly and unexpectedly set you before His people as they sought, and by the unforeseen occurrence of your arrival manifestly showed you to be pleasing to Himself by heavenly providence; and the evidence of your sudden and swift appearance showed the ordering of God's will; so that what might have come about by difficult arrangement was accomplished with easy swiftness by the command of the urgent Lord; and that you might behold and marvel at yourself standing as bishop in the Church of God before you were known to have arrived. X. Thence the Lord confirmed His love with you with an initiated charity; thence He sealed the friendship with you which He delivered and dedicated to His disciples beneath the triumph of His cross, saying: If you do what I command you, I no longer call you servants, but friends; thence martyrdom, thence the election of the priesthood.

Great is the friendship through which you are admitted to the face of Christ, to arrive as an extraordinary sacrifice. Thus are the just chosen, thus are the devout and simple ones chosen in the fear of Christ proved; that you are destined beforehand for the reward of faith, beforehand counted worthy in the Lord for the prize of a devoted mind, before the hour of the decree has come, before you have received the sentence of Christ, that the heavenly election may find you a proven and prepared sacrifice. For He who is not a lying God, who appointed a bishop for His people unexpectedly, He will crown you with the full love of His will.

Then we ask and pray only that you remember us, when, as a chaste and immaculate sacrifice of the Lord's affection, proven and spotless, you shall stand before the tribunal of Christ, when with the glory of the grace of God you shall receive the reward and recompense of a devoted mind; may it remain in your memory and abide tenaciously in your senses, the love of charity which you deign to impart to us; that through your prayers our sins may obtain pardon, that through the merits of your justice the offenses of our life may be cleansed. For I am confident it is a likeness of martyrdom that a sinner has deserved to be saved by the petition of a just man: so that even when you yourself can obtain less by your prayers, you may be freed by the merits of the martyr.

Thus Job the just is shown about to pray and to obtain from God on behalf of the sins of his three friends, and the proof of his fear and faith is attested by the voice of the Lord as witness. When therefore, dearest one, on the day of your deliverance you shall begin to present yourself before the face of Christ; when by a happy lot you shall have succeeded to reign with Christ in eternal and everlasting beholding: for the mercy of the Lord, hold already in mind your servant Celsus, most holy one.