{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030194.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030194.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030194.htm","text":"Chapter XIII.\u2014Argument from the Destruction of Jerusalem and Desolation of Judea.\nTherefore, since the sons of Israel affirm p. 169 that we err in receiving the Christ, who is already come, let us put in a demurrer against them out of the Scriptures themselves, to the effect that the Christ who was the theme of prediction is come; albeit by the times of Daniel\u2019s prediction we have proved that the Christ is come already who was the theme of announcement. Now it behoved Him to be born in Bethlehem of Judah. For thus it is written in the prophet: \u201cAnd thou, Bethlehem, are not the least in the leaders of Judah: for out of thee shall issue a Leader who shall feed my People Israel.\u201d 1383 But if hitherto he has not been born, what \u201cleader\u201d was it who was thus announced as to proceed from the tribe of Judah, out of Bethlehem? For it behoves him to proceed from the tribe of Judah and from Bethlehem. But we perceive that now none of the race of Israel has remained in Bethlehem; and (so it has been) ever since the interdict was issued forbidding any one of the Jews to linger in the confines of the very district, in order that this prophetic utterance also should be perfectly fulfilled: \u201cYour land is desert, your cities burnt up by fire,\u201d\u2014that is, (he is foretelling) what will have happened to them in time of war \u201cyour region strangers shall eat up in your sight, and it shall be desert and subverted by alien peoples.\u201d 1384 And in another place it is thus said through the prophet: \u201cThe King with His glory ye shall see,\u201d\u2014that is, Christ, doing deeds of power in the glory of God the Father; 1385 \u201cand your eyes shall see the land from afar,\u201d 1386 \u2014which is what you do, being prohibited, in reward of your deserts, since the storming of Jerusalem, to enter into your land; it is permitted you merely to see it with your eyes from afar: \u201cyour soul,\u201d he says, \u201cshall meditate terror,\u201d 1387 \u2014namely, at the time when they suffered the ruin of themselves. 1388 How, therefore, will a \u201cleader\u201d be born from Judea, and how far will he \u201cproceed from Bethlehem,\u201d as the divine volumes of the prophets do plainly announce; since none at all is left there to this day of (the house of) Israel, of whose stock Christ could be born?\nNow, if (according to the Jews) He is hitherto not come, when He begins to come whence will He be anointed? 1389 For the Law enjoined that, in captivity, it was not lawful for the unction of the royal chrism to be compounded. 1390 But, if there is no longer \u201cunction\u201d there 1391 as Daniel prophesied (for he says, \u201cUnction shall be exterminated\u201d), it follows that they 1392 no longer have it, because neither have they a temple where was the \u201chorn\u201d 1393 from which kings were wont to be anointed. If, then, there is no unction, whence shall be anointed the \u201cleader\u201d who shall be born in Bethlehem? or how shall he proceed \u201cfrom Bethlehem,\u201d seeing that of the seed of Israel none at all exists in Bethlehem.\nA second time, in fact, let us show that Christ is already come, (as foretold) through the prophets, and has suffered, and is already received back in the heavens, and thence is to come accordingly as the predictions prophesied. For, after His advent, we read, according to Daniel, that the city itself had to be exterminated; and we recognise that so it has befallen. For the Scripture says thus, that \u201cthe city and the holy place are simultaneously exterminated together with the leader,\u201d 1394 \u2014undoubtedly (that Leader) who was to proceed \u201cfrom Bethlehem,\u201d and from the tribe of \u201cJudah.\u201d Whence, again, it is manifest that \u201cthe city must simultaneously be exterminated\u201d at the time when its \u201cLeader\u201d had to suffer in it, (as foretold) through the Scriptures of the prophets, who say: \u201cI have outstretched my hands the whole day unto a People contumacious and gainsaying Me, who walketh in a way not good, but after their own sins.\u201d 1395 And in the Psalms, David says: \u201cThey exterminated my hands and feet: they counted all my bones; they themselves, moreover, contemplated and saw me, and in my thirst slaked me with vinegar.\u201d 1396 These things David did not suffer, so as to seem justly to have spoken of himself; but the Christ who was crucified. Moreover, the \u201chands and feet,\u201d are not \u201cexterminated,\u201d 1397 except His who is suspended on a \u201ctree.\u201d Whence, again, David said that \u201cthe Lord would reign from the tree:\u201d 1398 for elsewhere, too, the prophet predicts the fruit of this \u201ctree,\u201d saying \u201cThe earth hath given her blessings,\u201d 1399 \u2014of course that virgin-earth, not yet irrigated with rains, nor fertilized by p. 170 showers, out of which man was of yore first formed, out of which now Christ through the flesh has been born of a virgin; \u201cand the tree,\u201d 1400 he says, \u201chath brought his fruit,\u201d 1401 \u2014not that \u201ctree\u201d in paradise which yielded death to the protoplasts, but the \u201ctree\u201d of the passion of Christ, whence life, hanging, was by you not believed! 1402 For this \u201ctree\u201d in a mystery, 1403 it was of yore wherewith Moses sweetened the bitter water; whence the People, which was perishing of thirst in the desert, drank and revived; 1404 just as we do, who, drawn out from the calamities of the heathendom 1405 in which we were tarrying perishing with thirst (that is, deprived of the divine word), drinking, \u201cby the faith which is on Him,\u201d 1406 the baptismal water of the \u201ctree\u201d of the passion of Christ, have revived,\u2014a faith from which Israel has fallen away, (as foretold) through Jeremiah, who says, \u201cSend, and ask exceedingly whether such things have been done, whether nations will change their gods (and these are not gods!). But My People hath changed their glory: whence no profit shall accrue to them: the heaven turned pale thereat\u201d (and when did it turn pale? undoubtedly when Christ suffered), \u201cand shuddered,\u201d he says, \u201cmost exceedingly;\u201d 1407 and \u201cthe sun grew dark at mid-day:\u201d 1408 (and when did it \u201cshudder exceedingly\u201d except at the passion of Christ, when the earth also trembled to her centre, and the veil of the temple was rent, and the tombs were burst asunder? 1409 \u201cbecause these two evils hath My People done; Me,\u201d He says, \u201cthey have quite forsaken, the fount of water of life, 1410 and they have digged for themselves worn-out tanks, which will not be able to contain water.\u201d Undoubtedly, by not receiving Christ, the \u201cfount of water of life,\u201d they have begun to have \u201cworn-out tanks,\u201d that is, synagogues for the use of the \u201cdispersions of the Gentiles,\u201d 1411 in which the Holy Spirit no longer lingers, as for the time past He was wont to tarry in the temple before the advent of Christ, who is the true temple of God. For, that they should withal suffer this thirst of the Divine Spirit, the prophet Isaiah had said, saying: \u201cBehold, they who serve Me shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; they who serve Me shall drink, but ye shall thirst, and from general tribulation of spirit shall howl: for ye shall transmit your name for a satiety to Mine elect, but you the Lord shall slay; but for them who serve Me shall be named a new name, which shall be blessed in the lands.\u201d 1412\nAgain, the mystery of this \u201ctree\u201d 1413 we read as being celebrated even in the Books of the Reigns. For when the sons of the prophets were cutting \u201cwood\u201d 1414 with axes on the bank of the river Jordan, the iron flew off and sank in the stream; and so, on Elisha 1415 the prophet\u2019s coming up, the sons of the prophets beg of him to extract from the stream the iron which had sunk. And accordingly Elisha, having taken \u201cwood,\u201d and cast it into that place where the iron had been submerged, forthwith it rose and swam on the surface, 1416 and the \u201cwood\u201d sank, which the sons of the prophets recovered. 1417 Whence they understood that Elijah\u2019s spirit was presently conferred upon him. 1418 What is more manifest than the mystery 1419 of this \u201cwood,\u201d\u2014that the obduracy of this world 1420 had been sunk in the profundity of error, and is freed in baptism by the \u201cwood\u201d of Christ, that is, of His passion; in order that what had formerly perished through the \u201ctree\u201d in Adam, should be restored through the \u201ctree\u201d in Christ? 1421 while we, of course, who have succeeded to, and occupy, the room of the prophets, at the present day sustain in the world 1422 that treatment which the prophets always suffered on account of divine religion: for some they stoned, some they banished; more, however, they delivered to mortal slaughter, 1423 \u2014a fact which they cannot deny. 1424\nThis \u201cwood,\u201d again, Isaac the son of Abraham personally carried for his own sacrifice, when God had enjoined that he should be made a victim to Himself. But, because these had been mysteries 1425 which were being kept for perfect fulfilment in the times of Christ, Isaac, on the one hand, with his \u201cwood,\u201d was reserved, the ram being ofp. 171 fered which was caught by the horns in the bramble; 1426 Christ, on the other hand, in His times, carried His \u201cwood\u201d on His own shoulders, adhering to the horns of the cross, with a thorny crown encircling His head. For Him it behoved to be made a sacrifice on behalf of all Gentiles, who \u201cwas led as a sheep for a victim, and, like a lamb voiceless before his shearer, so opened not His mouth\u201d (for He, when Pilate interrogated Him, spake nothing 1427 ); for \u201cin humility His judgment was taken away: His nativity, moreover, who shall declare?\u201d Because no one at all of human beings was conscious of the nativity of Christ at His conception, when as the Virgin Mary was found pregnant by the word of God; and because \u201cHis life was to be taken from the land.\u201d 1428 Why, accordingly, after His resurrection from the dead, which was effected on the third day, did the heavens receive Him back? It was in accordance with a prophecy of Hosea, uttered on this wise: \u201cBefore daybreak shall they arise unto Me, saying, Let us go and return unto the Lord our God, because Himself will draw us out and free us. After a space of two days, on the third day\u201d 1429 \u2014which is His glorious resurrection\u2014He received back into the heavens (whence withal the Spirit Himself had come to the Virgin 1430 ) Him whose nativity and passion alike the Jews have failed to acknowledge. Therefore, since the Jews still contend that the Christ is not yet come, whom we have in so many ways approved 1431 to be come, let the Jews recognise their own fate,\u2014a fate which they were constantly foretold as destined to incur after the advent of the Christ, on account of the impiety with which they despised and slew Him. For first, from the day when, according to the saying of Isaiah, \u201ca man cast forth his abominations of gold and silver, which they made to adore with vain and hurtful (rites),\u201d 1432 \u2014that is, ever since we Gentiles, with our breast doubly enlightened through Christ\u2019s truth, cast forth (let the Jews see it) our idols,\u2014what follows has likewise been fulfilled. For \u201cthe Lord of Sabaoth hath taken away, among the Jews from Jerusalem,\u201d among the other things named, \u201cthe wise architect\u201d too, 1433 who builds the church, God\u2019s temple, and the holy city, and the house of the Lord. For thenceforth God\u2019s grace desisted (from working) among them. And \u201cthe clouds were commanded not to rain a shower upon the vineyard of Sorek,\u201d 1434 \u2014the clouds being celestial benefits, which were commanded not to be forthcoming to the house of Israel; for it \u201chad borne thorns\u201d\u2014whereof that house of Israel had wrought a crown for Christ\u2014and not \u201crighteousness, but a clamour,\u201d\u2014the clamour whereby it had extorted His surrender to the cross. 1435 And thus, the former gifts of grace being withdrawn, \u201cthe law and the prophets were until John,\u201d 1436 and the fishpool of Bethsaida 1437 until the advent of Christ: thereafter it ceased curatively to remove from Israel infirmities of health; since, as the result of their perseverance in their frenzy, the name of the Lord was through them blasphemed, as it is written: \u201cOn your account the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles:\u201d 1438 for it is from them that the infamy (attached to that name) began, and (was propagated during) the interval from Tiberius to Vespasian. And because they had committed these crimes, and had failed to understand that Christ \u201cwas to be found\u201d 1439 in \u201cthe time of their visitation,\u201d 1440 their land has been made \u201cdesert, and their cities utterly burnt with fire, while strangers devour their region in their sight: the daughter of Sion is derelict, as a watch-tower in a vineyard, or as a shed in a cucumber garden,\u201d\u2014ever since the time, to wit, when \u201cIsrael knew not\u201d the Lord, and \u201cthe People understood Him not;\u201d but rather \u201cquite forsook, and provoked unto indignation, the Holy One of Israel.\u201d 1441 So, again, we find a conditional threat of the sword: \u201cIf ye shall have been unwilling, and shall not have been obedient, the glaive shall eat you up.\u201d 1442 Whence we prove that the sword was Christ, by not hearing whom they perished; who, again, in the Psalm, demands of the Father their dispersion, saying, \u201cDisperse them in Thy power;\u201d 1443 who, withal, again through Isaiah prays for their utter burning. \u201cOn My account,\u201d He says, \u201chave these things happened to you; in anxiety shall ye sleep.\u201d 1444\nSince, therefore, the Jews were predicted as destined to suffer these calamities on Christ\u2019s account, and we find that they have suffered them, and see them sent into dispersion and p. 172 abiding in it, manifest it is that it is on Christ\u2019s account that these things have befallen the Jews, the sense of the Scriptures harmonizing with the issue of events and of the order of the times. Or else, if Christ is not yet come, on whose account they were predicted as destined thus to suffer, when He shall have come it follows that they will thus suffer. And where will then be a daughter of Sion to be derelict, who now has no existence? where the cities to be exust, which are already exust and in heaps? where the dispersion of a race which is now in exile? Restore to Judea the condition which Christ is to find; and (then, if you will), contend that some other (Christ) is coming.\nMic. 5:2, Matt. 2:3. Tertullian\u2019s Latin agrees rather with the Greek of St. Matthew than with the LXX.\n169:1384\nSee Isa. i. 7.\n169:1385\nComp. John 5:43, John 10:37, 38.\n169:1386 169:1387 169:1388\nComp. the \u201cfailing eyes\u201d in the passage from Deuteronomy given in c. xi., if \u201ceyes\u201d is to be taken as the subject here. If not, we have another instance of the slipshod writing in which this treatise abounds.\n169:1389\nAs His name \u201cChrist\u201d or \u201cMessiah\u201d implies.\n169:1390\nComp. Ex. xxx. 22-33.\n169:1391 169:1392 169:1393\nComp. 1 Kings 1.39, where the Eng. ver. has \u201can horn;\u201d the LXX. \u03c4\u1f78 \u03ba\u03ad\u03c1\u03b1\u03c2, \u201cthe horn;\u201d which at that time, of course, was in David\u2019s tabernacle (2 Sam. 6.17,) for \u201ctemple\u201d there was yet none.\n169:1394 169:1395\nSee Isa. 65:2, Rom. 10:21.\n169:1396\nPs. 22:16, 17, Ps. 69:21 (lxviii. 22 in LXX.).\n169:1397 169:1398 169:1399\nSee Ps. 67:6, Ps. 85:12 (lxxxiv. 13 in LXX.).\n170:1400 170:1401\nSee Joel ii. 22.\n170:1402\nSee c. xi. above, and the note there.\n170:1403 170:1404\nSee Ex. xv. 22-26.\n170:1405 170:1406\nSee Acts xxvi. 18, ad fin.\n170:1407\nSee Jer. ii. 10-12.\n170:1408\nSee Amos viii. 9, as before, in c.x.\n170:1409\nSee Matt. 27:45, 50, Mark 15:33, 37, 38, Luke 23:44, 45.\n170:1410\n\u1f51\u03b4\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b6\u03c9\u1fc6\u03c2 in the LXX. here (ed. Tischendorf, who quotes the Cod. Alex. as reading, however, \u1f51\u03b4\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b6\u1ff6\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2). Comp. Rev. 22:1, 17, Rev. 21:6, John 7:37. (The reference, it will be seen, is still to Jer. ii. 10-13; but the writer has mixed up words of Amos therewith.)\n170:1411\nComp. The \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03c3\u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u1f70\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1ffe\u0395\u03bb\u03bb\u03ae\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd of John vii. 35; and see 1 Pet. i. 1.\n170:1412\nSee Isa. lxv. 13-16 in LXX.\n170:1413 170:1414 170:1415\nHelis\u00e6o. Comp. Luke iv. 27.\n170:1416\nThe careless construction of leaving the nominative \u201cElisha\u201d with no verb to follow it is due to the original, not to the translator.\n170:1417\nSee 2 Kings vi. 1-7 (4 Kings vi. 1\u20137 in LXX). It is not said, however, that the wood sank.\n170:1418\nThis conclusion they had drawn before, and are not said to have drawn, consequently, upon this occasion. See 2 Kings 2.16.\n170:1419 170:1420\n\u201cS\u00e6culi,\u201d or perhaps here \u201cheathendom.\u201d\n170:1421\nFor a similar argument, see Anselm\u2019s Cur Deus Homo? l. i. c. iii. sub fin.\n170:1422 170:1423 170:1424\nComp. Acts 7:51, 52, Heb. 11:32.\n170:1425 171:1426\nSee Gen. xxii. 1-14.\n171:1427\nSee Matt. 27:11, Mark 15:1, John 19:8.\n171:1428 171:1429\nOehler refers to Hos. vi. 1; add 2 (ad init.).\n171:1430\nSee Luke i. 35.\n171:1431\nFor this sense of the word \u201capprove,\u201d comp. Acts ii. 22, Greek and English, and Phil. i. 10, Greek and English.\n171:1432\nSee Isa. ii. 20.\n171:1433\nSee Isa. 3:1, 3; and comp. 1 Cor. 3:10, Eph. 2:20, 21, 1 Pet. 2:4, and many similar passages.\n171:1434\nComp. Isa. v. 2 in LXX. and Lowth.\n171:1435\nComp. Isa. 5:6, 7, with Matt. 27:20, Mark 15:8, Luke 23:13, John 19:12.\n171:1436 171:1437\nSee John v. 1-9; and comp. de Bapt. c. v., and the note there.\n171:1438\nSee Isa. 52:5, Ezek. 36:20, 23, Rom. 2:24. (The passage in Isaiah in the LXX. agrees with Rom. ii. 24.)\n171:1439 171:1440\nSee Luke xix. 41-44.\n171:1441 171:1442 171:1443\nSee Ps. lix. 11 (lviii. 12 in LXX.)\n171:1444\nSee Isa. l. 11 in LXX.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part I: Argumen...","type":"page"}