Against the Jews, Who Persecuted Our Lord Jesus Christ

God the Father in the beginning made man with his own hand, and placed him in paradise, with a fixed condition of precepts of life, of law, and of testament. But he, having despised the precepts of the Father, was expelled from paradise into his earthly origin, in which he also died: but God raised up a righteous race from the seed of Adam, which seed he preserved into a people, through the son of Noah and his heirs. From that race he found a just man, whom he commanded to build a structure in the manner of a vessel, of a fixed capacity with measured joints; so that, enclosed in it with his brothers, Noah might be preserved through that race: but God had commanded that, on account of the unrighteousness of men, the world should perish by flooding waters.

Thereafter Noah was saved with his own, to whom God also established the testimony of his precept, saying: Every creature shall be food for you, like the nourishment of herbs, except flesh in the blood of life; and he placed the sign of this testimony in the rainbow. After these things the Lord God again testified to Abraham in Isaac, saying in this manner: To you I will give this land and to your seed, and I will make you the father of many nations. And from that point the seed grew into a multitude of people, and was divided into twelve Patriarchs. But to them also the Lord placed his testimony on Mount Horeb through Moses, from which place, having driven out the nations, he established there the people whom he had received and possessed as the inheritance promised to them: to whom also God showed very many signs and miracles, as to most beloved son. But that same people, having received so many and so great benefits, opposed the Father, and forsook the living God.

For Israel forsook the Lord, showing him their backs and not their face: for they turned their face toward idols; and by killing the Prophets sent to them, who preached concerning Christ, Israel from that time was accustomed to persecute Christ, not only when he came in the body, but even when he was announced by the Prophets. For they persecuted all the seers, of whom they stoned some, and destroyed others by shameful torment—not only those men themselves, but through them the Lord Christ as well. For what is the proof of this? Namely, in that they received those who were false accusers, faithless, treacherous, liars, and adversaries of Christ; but attacked those who were true and full of faith.

They cursed Moses, because he preached Christ: they loved Dathan, because he did not preach Christ: they rejected Aaron in the priesthood, because he bore the likeness of Christ: they set up Abiron, because he contradicted Christ: they hated David, because he sang of Christ: they exalted Saul, because he did not speak of Christ: they rejected Samuel, because he spoke of Christ: they preserved Agag, for he spoke nothing of Christ: they stoned Jeremiah who prophesied Christ: they loved Ananias who opposed Christ: they sawed asunder Isaiah who cried out of Christ: they magnified Manasseh who persecuted Christ: they slew John who pointed out Christ: they slaughtered Zechariah who loved Christ: they loved Judas who betrayed Christ.

You see how those who love Christ are hated; those who hate him burn with love among an unworthy people. O the stubborn persistence of persecution, unworthy even to the point of destruction by death! For they not only attacked the witnesses of the Lord, but the faithless tenants themselves also did insult to the Father in the Son. What therefore did they deserve to suffer for this offence? Namely, to be driven from the kingdom, to be disinherited: and so it came to pass, and so it fell out—worthy things fell to the worthy. For the Father, having suffered insult in the Son, the Son having endured it in the Prophets at the time when they were dying; in his own time he was compelled by indignation to write a new testament, with heaven and earth and an Angel from the temple called as witnesses, with Moses and Elijah standing by.

For he called these as witnesses when he suffered in Israel; he foretold that these things would come to pass through the Prophets, in these words: Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken; I have begotten and exalted sons; but they have despised me.

These words the Lord poured forth against Israel, crying out and saying: You would not have me; others will receive me, who have not yet even heard mention of me. You have spurned my wedding feast; others will come who have not been invited. You refused to till my field and my vineyard, from which the fruits of righteousness spring forth; others will till it and gather the fruits in God. What so dire a mind and execrable thought is this? Could you then kill the king and the bridegroom? For this reason heaven and earth are witnesses, and the elements that are in them: moreover all creation is witness to the death of Christ. O new cruelty! All of nature was shaken at the passion of the Lord; the people remained unmoved without trembling: the Angel, in repentance, fled when the veil was torn; but the people remained without fear, with garment intact: the elements were overturned and confounded; Israel stood secure. O new hardness! O singular audacity! O bloody faithlessness!

Pilate, a secular judge of a foreign nation, by temporal power, purified his hands and washed away the guilt of necessity, saying: I am innocent and free from his blood; but the people imitated neither a stranger nor an outsider, and moreover cried out: Crucify him, away with him: his blood be upon us and upon our children. Violent cruelty, and an inhuman people, and hardened hearts, and closed eyes—they killed their well-deserving one, nor did they shed tears. The Apostles mourned, and the people gloried: the earth trembled, and the people rejoiced; the Lord was judged, and Israel exulted: Christ suffered, and the impious cried out: the Lord was tormented, and the people rejoiced; the Lord was suspended, and the people feasted: with this shameful solemnity of theirs they sealed their wicked counsels with their crime and cruelty.

Tell me and speak, impious Israel, did you offer such a victim, immolating to the Father his own son? Did you pour out such libations—the blood of the pledge most acceptable to God? You led dances, O Jerusalem, when Christ was being killed; you gave songs with auspicious voices, when you said: Crucify him, hang him. For this reason in famine and in sickness: O people of Israel (the Lord complains of you), New moons, he says, and sabbath and the great day I cannot endure; feasts and fasting my soul abhors. Nor did God undeservedly hate your ceremonies, in which you destroyed his only and foremost Son. O hard day, and lamentable hour, and mournful solemnity, and ill-omened land and profane city, and people stained with the blood of the Lord's death! For they killed the Lord, and set free a robber.

For this reason therefore the Lord was compelled to make a new testament, sealed with seven seals, with Moses and Elijah as witnesses on the mountain; where he commanded that the mystery of Scripture should not be disclosed until the Son of man had risen from the dead: but as soon as the Lord rose on the third day, he opened the new testament, the life-giving testament, and thus spoke: "Come, foreign nations, my heirs; for Israel did not obey: wherefore go, disciples, to the uttermost ends of the earth, and preach throughout the world with these words: 'Come from every side, nations of the earth, enter into the eternal inheritance; for Israel was unwilling.

Do not hesitate; there is no exception here, neither of birth, nor of rank, nor of condition, nor of station, nor of form, nor of age; whether magnificent in dignity, whether noble, whether old, whether young, whether poor, rich, good or bad, masters and slaves, enter equally into the inheritance: and if one were lame of foot, deformed of body; even if unsightly with blemishes, and appearing deficient in the head; even if deficient in the eyes, all are freely permitted to recline at the banquet, and to feast at the wedding of the bridegroom.'"

Let no man be ashamed of his age, or his lowliness, or his infirmity, or his condition; for the Lord is accustomed to sustain a man of this kind. For he restored sight to the blind, and made the lame walk, and gave speech to the mute, and cleansed the spotted, and raised the dead. Fear not, you who have sinned; come first to life: let not one who has committed homicide be afraid because he did so; let not one who has stolen another's goods despair because he had taken them; let not the tax-collector fear because he had extorted. For remission of sins has been decreed for all, and the Lord desires such persons—cast down in humility, unsightly in appearance, broken in health, and oppressed in servitude. For the blessed and glorious and magnificent, and the powerful and rich and strong, were unwilling to yield to the Lord, nor to enter into the wedding feast of the bridegroom; moreover they killed him most shamefully.

Therefore the highest among them became the lowest; and the strongest, the weakest; and the wise man, a fool; and the noble and rich man, most poor; and the heir, disinherited: because they themselves disinherited the most gentle and most gracious King, saying: We do not know who this man is; for he is not our king; we have another king, Caesar, therefore they have the one they asked for. Then was fulfilled the prophetic word which foretold to them: You would not have the water of Siloam that goes in silence, but rather you desired the water of Rassin. Wherefore I bring upon you the king of the Assyrians, who will level your mountains to a plain, and will enter into your lands. And so it came to pass. For Christ having been rejected by the people, he sent the tyrant they desired, who destroyed their cities, and condemned the people to captivity, and took spoils, and reduced their homeland to the desolation of Sodom.

For the Lord in his indignation took away from Jerusalem the strength of bread and water; the strong man, the giant and warrior, the judge, the prophet, the diviner and the praiseworthy elder, the counsellor and the skilled architect, and the prudent helper. All these aids, fortifications, and defences he transferred to the Gentiles, and with his standard planted, all his kingdom; he dwelt among them, and pitched his camp at the threshold, and there established the army of his power, and there he reigned.

The kingdom of Jerusalem is no longer there, but among us: there are the camps, here the army, here the leader, here the power, here the bridegroom, here the wedding, here the King, here Christ, here life, here the resurrection, here eternity. There is he who from the beginning was prefigured, and honored by the Prophets, and embodied in the womb, and baptized in the Jordan, and despised by the people, and hung upon the wood, and buried in the earth. Here is he who broke his old testament and wrote a new one, by which he called the Gentiles to the possession of his goods: and therefore we Gentiles bear upon our shoulders the cross of our Lord, which the Lord confessed before Israel; he spoke to them gently with these words: Come to me, all you who labor under a burden, and I will refresh you.

For my yoke is gentle, and my burden most light; and they answered: We will not hear; but the nations of ours did hear, and believed the saving word, by which their ears were opened, and the eyes of the blind were illumined, and the tongues of the hindered spoke freely, the lame leaped forth like wild creatures frolicking. For Christ with his kingdom established a dwelling for them; but the people was left behind, naked, forsaken, widowed of the heavenly and earthly kingdom: for from the heavenly they were cast out, having possessed all the instruments they had held—the lamp of seven lights, and the structure of the Testament, and the bronze vessels, and the trumpets, and the bread from heaven, and the holy land flowing with milk and honey; of this inheritance Israel has been deprived, and now is left abandoned in all its land without sustenance, without the aid of light.

For you destroyed the help and the defense, and you persecuted the light, and you repelled the protector, and you afflicted the bridegroom, and you hanged the king: therefore you are an exile from your homeland, wandering about the rivers of the Gentiles, you wept with the voice of suppliants in prayer, saying: "I, a wretch, have been driven from my own dwelling places, I have been made a guest and a stranger in another's possession, without house, without roof; have mercy on one desolate and impious and undeservedly conquered."

This is the punishment upon Israel, this the condition of Jerusalem; and unless they turn their minds and say: "The Lord lives forever," they will not be able to enter into the Lord's rest. For he lives, and his inheritances live, and he lives whom you impiously slew in Jerusalem: and yet the Lord has not denied you all hope; for he has granted the pardon of repentance, if by any means you can repent. Who is so good, who so dutiful, so merciful? "Receive," he says, "salvation, even though you have slain me: let this matter be freely given, even though you do not deserve it. I forgive, if you repent." Therefore, if it is right, take up a good mind in this way, understand the new testament, though late and slowly. And you, Gentiles, restore to them their own Scriptures, and say: Worship the Lord for his merits: When you stretch out your hands, even if you multiply them, he does not hear your prayer; for your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves, be clean, and come, let us reason together, says the Lord God; wash the blood from yourselves, and he will cleanse your hearts above snow, your souls above milk.

Come hither, believe the Scriptures, here is salvation: Out of Zion shall go forth the word, and the law from Jerusalem; he shall judge in the midst of the Gentiles, and shall rebuke many peoples: let them beat their swords into plowshares, and exchange their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not take up sword against nation, for they shall cease to make war. And you, house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord; for he has dismissed his people: your land is filled with foreign omens, and the children have become estranged. For the land itself is yours, and the race of the Lord has become foreign.

Come therefore, enter and be as one people: have mercy on those who err: it is right that the judgment of God be honored, how the mighty have been cast down, and the humble lifted up, the strong weakened, the infirm strengthened; the rich reduced to poverty, the poor made heirs, servants made lords over masters, the ruling made subject, the seeing made blind, the blind illumined; the prudent turned to foolishness, the foolish turned to prudence.

For indeed, those who were once senseless and unlearned in spirit now teach the Scriptures, and know and understand them: but those who from the beginning were learned and skilled and knowing in the discipline of the law, do not know the law, do not know how to read it, nor do they understand spiritual things: and one of those prudent men, wishing to see, comes, understands, asks a boy or a little child, or an old woman, or a widow, or a peasant, saying: "I desire to live, be a guide to me in Zion: expound to me the new Testament, reconcile me to the Lord: behold, I give myself to you as a disciple, interpret to me the law, explain what was done at Horeb, set forth the precepts given in Zion and in the law." Without letters he expounds the Scriptures to them, and a boy teaches an old man, and an old woman persuades the eloquent.

Israel therefore, rebuked, follows, led by the hand to the font, and there testifies what he has believed, and having received the seal, purified through the Spirit, asks to receive life through the food of grace, the bread which is in the blessing, and a wondrous spectacle comes to pass: those who were Levites offering, and priests sacrificing, and high priests pouring libations, stand by while a boy offers; those who once taught now learn, and those who gave commands are commanded, and those who baptized are baptized, and those who circumcised are circumcised: thus the Lord willed the Gentiles to flourish. See how Christ has loved you.