{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030182.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030182.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030182.htm","text":"p. 151 VII.\nAn Answer to the Jews. 1126\n[Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.]\nChapter I.\u2014Occasion of Writing. Relative Position of Jews and Gentiles Illustrated.\nIt happened very recently a dispute was held between a Christian and a Jewish proselyte. Alternately with contentious cable they each spun out the day until evening. By the opposing din, moreover, of some partisans of the individuals, truth began to be overcast by a sort of cloud. It was therefore our pleasure that that which, owing to the confused noise of disputation, could be less fully elucidated point by point, should be more carefully looked into, and that the pen should determine, for reading purposes, the questions handled.\nFor the occasion, indeed, of claiming Divine grace even for the Gentiles derived a pre-eminent fitness from this fact, that the man who set up to vindicate God\u2019s Law as his own was of the Gentiles, and not a Jew \u201cof the stock of the Israelites.\u201d 1127 For this fact\u2014that Gentiles are admissible to God\u2019s Law\u2014is enough to prevent Israel from priding himself on the notion that \u201cthe Gentiles are accounted as a little drop of a bucket,\u201d or else as \u201cdust out of a threshing-floor:\u201d 1128 although we have God Himself as an adequate engager and faithful promiser, in that He promised to Abraham that \u201cin his seed should be blest all nations of the earth;\u201d 1129 and that 1130 out of the womb of Rebecca \u201ctwo peoples and two nations were about to proceed,\u201d 1131 \u2014of course those of the Jews, that is, of Israel; and of the Gentiles, that is ours. Each, then, was called a people and a nation; lest, from the nuncupative appellation, any should dare to claim for himself the privilege of grace. For God ordained \u201ctwo peoples and two nations\u201d as about to proceed out of the womb of one woman: nor did grace 1132 make distinction in the nuncupative appellation, but in the order of birth; to the effect that, which ever was to be prior in proceeding from the womb, should be subjected to \u201cthe less,\u201d that is, the posterior. For thus unto Rebecca did God speak: \u201cTwo nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be divided from thy bowels; and people shall overcome people, and the greater shall serve the less.\u201d 1133 Accordingly, since the people or nation of the Jews is anterior in time, and \u201cgreater\u201d through the grace of primary favour in the Law, whereas ours is understood to be \u201cless\u201d in the age of times, as having in the last era of the world 1134 attained the knowledge of divine mercy: beyond doubt, through the edict of the divine utterance, the prior and \u201cgreater\u201d people\u2014that is, the Jewish\u2014must necessarily serve the \u201cless;\u201d and the \u201cless\u201d people\u2014that is, the Christian\u2014overcome the \u201cgreater.\u201d For, withal, according to the memorial records of the divine Scriptures, the people of the Jews\u2014that is, the more ancient\u2014quite forsook God, and did degrading service to idols, and, abandoning the Divinity, was surrendered to images; while \u201cthe people\u201d said to Aaron, \u201cMake us gods to go before us.\u201d 1135 And when the gold out of the necklaces of the women and the rings of p. 152 the men had been wholly smelted by fire, and there had come forth a calf-like head, to this figment Israel with one consent (abandoning God) gave honour, saying, \u201cThese are the gods who brought us from the land of Egypt.\u201d 1136 For thus, in the later times in which kings were governing them, did they again, in conjunction with Jeroboam, worship golden kine, and groves, and enslave themselves to Baal. 1137 Whence is proved that they have ever been depicted, out of the volume of the divine Scriptures, as guilty of the crime of idolatry; whereas our \u201cless\u201d\u2014that is, posterior\u2014people, quitting the idols which formerly it used slavishly to serve, has been converted to the same God from whom Israel, as we have above related, had departed. 1138 For thus has the \u201cless\u201d\u2014that is, posterior\u2014people overcome the \u201cgreater people,\u201d while it attains the grace of divine favour, from which Israel has been divorced.\n[This treatise was written while our author was a Catholic. This seems to me the best supported of the theories concerning it. Let us accept Pamelius, for once and date it a.d. 198. Dr. Allix following Baronius, will have it as late as a.d. 208. Neander thinks the work, after the quotation from Isaiah in the beginning of chapter ninth, is not our author\u2019s, but was finished by another hand, clumsily annexing what is said on the same chapter of Isaiah in the Third Book against Marcion. It is only slightly varied. Bp. Kaye admits the very striking facts instanced by Neander, in support of this theory, but demolishes, with a word any argument drawn from thence that the genuine work was written after the author\u2019s lapse. This treatise is sufficiently annotated by Thelwall, and covers ground elsewhere gone over in this Series. My own notes are therefore very few.]\n151:1127\nComp. Phil. iii. 5.\n151:1128\nSee Isa. xl. 15: \u201cdust of the balance,\u201d Eng. Ver.; \u1fe5\u03bf\u03c0\u1f74 \u03b6\u03c5\u03b3\u03bf\u1fe6 LXX. For the expression \u201cdust out of a threshing-floor,\u201d however, see Ps. 1:4, Dan. 2:35.\n151:1129\nSee Gen. xxii. 18; and comp. Gal. iii. 16, and the reference in both places.\n151:1130\nThis promise may be said to have been given \u201cto Abraham,\u201d because (of course) he was still living at the time; as we see by comparing Gen. 21:5, Gen. 25:7, 26, Heb. 11:9.\n151:1131\nOr, \u201cnor did He make, by grace, a distinction.\u201d\n151:1132\nSee Gen. xxv. 21-23, especially in the LXX.; and comp. Rom. ix. 10-13.\n151:1134 151:1135\nExod. 32:1, 23, Acts 7:39, 40.\n152:1136\nEx. xxxii. 4: comp. Acts 7:38, 1 Cor. 10:7, Ps. 6:19.\n152:1137\nComp. 1 Kings 12:25, 2 Kings 17:7 (in LXX. 3 and 4 Kings). The Eng. ver. speaks of \u201ccalves;\u201d the LXX. call them \u201cheifers.\u201d\n152:1138\nComp. 1 Thess. 1:9, 10.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part I: Chapter I","type":"page"}