Against the Jews

Against the Jews It is said on the feast of Hosannas, and it is Against the Jews A discourse. Blessed is the Lord who from the mouth of children chose praise for his honor, my brethren. Come, O Jew, proud in bodily names, reveal and show me what is the cause of the election of your people. Why did you choose from all peoples a God of all, and you honor him in name and rank above the nations? Why did you separate yourself from the tribes of the whole world, and you do not mix with the nations, the offspring of Adam? Why are you held in contempt like a stranger among the members of your own race, since from him you are, from the dust from which man was formed? One nature of Adamites, or son of Adam, and one power that was established for Adam and his offspring. Nature witnesses that there is one nature and one Creator, and if one, why is there a distinction between a people and peoples? If one sign created everything from nothing, why do you boast of a creation equal without your equality? If it is the same power that begets rational and irrational beings, why is its activity not equal to its ordinances? Why did it choose you from all my peoples and cast aside the rest, and over what of yours did it make a covenant and not over every man? Why did it bind the course of the spirit of its revelations to your people, and confine and restrain all prophecy within your tribes?

Why to you alone did he give the law of life, and he chose you from among the peoples because of the greatness of his love? Why in you the power of his signs and his mighty deeds, and he subdued the peoples and crowned kings because of you? Why then is your love abundant toward his love, more than all, and because of this you repay a reward that is worthy of your love? Or perhaps then his love for Abraham is dear to his love, and because of this you make yourself an heir of his great love? What do you desire, that because of what he chose Abraham, and what is the reason that he called him a friend of his pleasantness? If you say that his love made him a friend of the hidden one, behold, earlier he chose his love, and Moses testifies. The spirit of revelation called him from Babylon before he believed, and after he separated him, he left idolatry and honored the truth. Why do you not boast, and your fathers, that your election is the one that later chooses and rejects? And it is that his love for Abraham, who was chosen, behold, there is one who loved before his election more than him. Abel loved and showed his love through action, and his murder testifies that love killed him, envy. Also Noah was pleasing in a corrupt generation, destroying his way, and behold, the testimony of the purity of his person in the book of Moses. Also Melchizedek grew old and grew weary before his God, and it is said that Abraham bowed his head before his blessings.

Behold, the sons of Abraham who are like your father. Why against your father was the kingdom, and not against them? Why did he reign over you, and your blessing over the peoples of the earth, and he did not wish to deliver the confession of his words as you? According to your thought, you said this, that he did not wish to deliver to me the truth of the perfection of this by means of deeds. Why did he change the name of the one who is like him, and call him by another, and on what account did he give him the fatherhood over all peoples? Abram is a father who rules over one people only, and the name Abraham is a fatherhood over many. The first name had no faith in it, and when he was established in faith, he became Abraham. One essence revealed the interpretation of the power of his name, and it sought a way by means of its reasoning to lead the peoples. His faith made him to be a father of peoples, and what did it do that this first one was chosen in his name? The choice of your father, I say, follows you, son of Abraham, what is it, and on what account does it honor your race more than all? Reveal and examine for me like a householder his choice and his name, and I will deliver to you that you walk well in his faith. If the Creator alone chose him from all who were, it is not fitting that the love for one should choose and reject others.

Why did he not choose another stone in his own likeness, so that the blood of many would be shed, the stone of afflictions, and the iniquity would cease? And behold, the stones were not from the stone that cast this, and the witness of iniquity to the sons of Abraham who call to Abraham. And his choosing was like the choosing of the one who ruled over him; his name, why change and call him the father of the peoples? And if truly he were a father to his people, his election and his name would be the cause of his fatherhood. What do you say, son of Abraham, concerning Abraham? How can he be your father and the father of the peoples? For you have nothing more of the name of Abraham, since even the peoples, in their request, go as it is written. For the sake of the peoples, Abraham ascended to a high rank; for it is evident that the peoples were the cause of his greatness. Come then, son of Abraham, praise the peoples, your brothers, for if they had not been a request for your father, he would not have inherited. Abraham is smaller than Abraham, as much as you would say, as his own people are smaller than all peoples. If his fatherhood were established only among the people, his name would not cease in the deed of that which was revealed. Even the authority of the Lord who chose him would be too small for him, and even gods more than he would have ruled.

If his hands had been the ones that cast the stone, then for the nations of the wicked, the fatherhood would have been rejected. If the Creator had power over his offspring, the magicians would have despised his work. A small portion was given to him from his own, and without a sound the foundations would have been shaken. For the many gods of the countless nations, and for the god of the small people, who is wandering and enslaved. Not even the son of Abram would dare to set up the whole of his own against the nations that reject your covenant. The chosen one of your father holds the door against your words, for everyone who is a son of Abraham is a son of God. You have not gained anything more than the name of the Creator, and you are not able to hold the door against the nations. Your brothers are the circumcised, who are distinguished by the nature of the flesh; why do you not submit to the brotherhood of the house of Abraham? In the name of his essence, the Creator swore to your father and to your father, that the nations would be blessed and become heirs of your inheritance. Is the sound of the oath true in itself, or is it not true? Were they blessed, or is it something future? If it was that the nations were already in his inheritance, and if it was not, it would be, and what will you do?

that which was bound and witnessed by the books of the one who established their words. And if it were not that the deceiver of the Medes had established the truth that is in them, the peoples would not have been sons of Abraham as the text says. And why does the Mede love Abraham more than you? They were not blessed by that daughter of your voice, but were blessed. And why were they guilty and you are innocent? Open the blindness of their hearts from the side of their error, and show them the clear truth of the name of the Creator. Cast down the pride of their arrogance with the arrow of the demon, and let them be beneath the lordship of the Lord of Abram. Let a king of counsel be for them to help the evil one, and cast into their hearts a good thought of faith. Open their minds with a thought of love, and remove from them the bitter gall of idolatry. Show them the straight path of the spirit of the body, and teach them to rejoice in the hope of the kingdom of heaven. Uproot the root of the bitter plant of their error, and scatter the thorns of the snares of the demons from their limbs. Reveal to them that one Creator created everything, and receive and deliver the testimonies of the words of his mouth. Write for them a new book that they did not know, and behold it is read to them day by day in spiritual things.

What power restrained the world from savagery and brought its binding within the confines of the words of the peaceful one? Who subdued the four quarters in the name of one man, and now raises up a sound of confession in place of sacrifice? Who adorned the West with the arrow of the name of Jesus, and now gives fruits of glory that have no satiety? Who said in the East, "Commands of faith, so that it no longer runs savagely after wickedness"? Who bound the harsh North with the confines of love, so that it no longer makes a covenant of iniquity with falsehood? Who sowed in the barren South good seed, and now its fruit of glory is borne for its inhabitants? Who abolished the false names of non-gods and established in the earth the weighty name of the name of being? Where have the magicians, the sorcerers who established the songs, gone? Behold, they have perished, and their memory has vanished from the mouth of man. Why have you also restrained your hand from them and do not sacrifice with your sons and daughters as before? Why have you ceased and do not offer on the high places, since there is no sacrifice that does not bring your offerings to the false ones? At what sacrifice did you turn away from the offerings of idolatry, such that now you stand in error against the peoples?

the world from savagery? The foolish error is not from goodness; the whole ceased from sacrifices. But show me when you were established without errors. The murder that you committed, all of you, from your error, when you did not wish. And now again you have turned the uncircumcised nations to the shame of your face. But say whether there is in you the power to say: what is this that has abolished your error and is itself triumphant? Who cast error to the ground for the sons of men, so that death is conquered and life conquers in place of that which you killed? Where can a crucified man be found who conquered creation, and creation taught itself to listen to his words? How did he restrain the world, and his power in humility, and yet the world again made peace with him without being disturbed? With what weapon did he make a treaty with all the powers, so that no visible weapon was seen like the earthquakes? How did the foolish workers find it to follow him, to make a treaty with impiety and Judaism? I say to you, O son of Abraham, concerning the son of your race: how did he contend with weaknesses and with difficulties? The son of your race is the one who accomplished these things, so that I am amazed at you. And the witnesses are the words of truth that were completed in his favor. Is he of your race or not? O Jew, was he crucified in Judah or not? Reveal and examine for me.

And if it is that He is from where He is, and where is His form? And what is the cause of His crucifixion and His proclamation? That heaven and earth bear witness to His glory, so that you cannot deny that His proclamation is not true. And if it is that this is your pursuit, and again I will pursue, by what power can I find a deficiency in creation, when the creation is He? And if again He is not, I also ask you this: how does His name shine in creation when He is not? How is it said when there is nothing at all from Him? And how does one confirm that without anything everyone believes? What is this, that the peoples abandoned their gods and believe in the name of a man who is not, as you say? If it is that He is the erring one, and as for the erring one, His crucifixion is an error, how, when He died, did He cause those who believe in Him to err through His death? And it becomes that the error, as you say, when the error ceases, what will those who err believe, that the erring and dead one can cause all to err? Many erred and caused many to err in their names, and after a time the great ones and their disciples vanished. The errors of Him are more deficient: five hundred shameful things, increasing and taking hold in all places. What is it that He caused to err and His blasphemy endures in His own likeness, and where is it that He seized the name of the Creator and was not ashamed?

There is no teaching that endures in the land like his teaching, nor a discipline that gives instruction like his discipline. Neither did Moses, who set the law from a hidden mouth, suffice to subdue rebellious peoples under his commands. They did not worship fire for the name of Moses or his books, nor did they set up altars for him in the land as for Jesus. And behold, God is hidden, the Lord among the lands, and there is none among the creatures who call him by the name by which he is hidden. And behold, they marvelled, and men did not suffice to gaze upon him. And when it is well known, there is no man who says praise to Moses. The great praise of Moses, son of Abraham, has ceased, and there is none who praises the mountains with the letters. But let every Jew who has it say: Where is Moses, and who from among men fulfilled his commands? Show openly, O Israelite, the praise of Moses, as the peoples show the praise of the man of the crucifixion. For Moses is greater? One says, I confess, one is greater than you, but he is smaller, without measure, than the name of Jesus. He is smaller than Jesus, and again one says, I am one who is much smaller, not in rank but in divine degree. For greater than Moses is the witness of the course of his proclamation, which passed beyond the sun and the moon in its swiftness. Behold, in all regions the voice of his proclamation thunders, and all languages grow, each one, the crown of his victory.

Behold, the Jews have rejected the shame of his crucifixion, and the barbarians have gone astray from the path of his faith. And if you do not wish to see with perceptible senses, withdraw your mind to the four directions and behold his power. See how every tongue cries out praise to his name and offers him gifts of love from their thoughts. Come then, O Jew, and compare mine with yours, and show whether there is power in your words as in mine. Without hesitation, let us seek a contest between us, and let the one who loses give his hand to the one who wins. Your books and from them let one speak against one, and upon their words let every word of mine and yours stand. I will submit to you if you speak from the scriptures, and I will not reject my words of the spirit of truth. Let Moses come, the first of the divine scribes, and let us seek a contest from his letters for this one who has come. What do you say, Moses, great one of the spiritual ones? Reveal and explain to me the meaning of the power within your books. A great one stands before me from the dead, and greater than him is the height of the heaven above him. That great one is great, and the greatness of his rank is above that of the prophets, and every man who does not submit to him as to a lord is guilty. Is Moses true or not true, son of Abraham? Is his word complete, or does the time of its completion stand?

Rise up from your people, O great one who writes, or do you not believe? Was it by deed or do you say that it was to be? If it was not as you thought it would be, show me this sign that came and led you and the peoples astray. Not only did it lead the peoples astray, but also you. You it led astray first, this sign that came and killed you. And the twelve witnesses who testified from your mouth are false. Moses wrote that from you a great one would arise, and through him the peoples would be blessed and become sons of Abraham. For it was to you that the Lord said to Abraham the Chaldean, "Through you the circumcised peoples will be blessed and become your seed." Show me this sign that blesses the peoples in the name of Abraham, and how it happened and words went forth to the pagans. If it were not that Moses the great wrote his account, how could something that happened resemble something that is written? All the peoples cry out together about this sign that came, and to whom will you listen, only yourself or creation? All creation witnesses that it received the sign, and you alone do not consent to the words of your own books. Or is it revealed to me like a householder when he will come, and what sacrifice will the peoples, the brothers of Abraham, offer? And when he comes and the peoples enter, you who are like a householder, why are you expelled from your inheritance?

Why do you cast aside like a deceiver? Behold, from the tumult and the vain one from you, the priest and the king and the investigator. Why have you scattered in four directions like one in wrath, and stirred up for yourself peoples with toil and kings with burdens? Why does the great one from you not stand as before, and investigate for you what is the cause of this event? It was not the time that the voice of inquiry ceased from you, neither when in your land nor when you led peoples into captivity. In Egypt, Moses; in the land of the Canaanites, Jesus son of Nun; and among the Babylonians, one son of a king and one son of a priest. And the spirits did not remain and were silent from your help until this one came whom you killed, and all went. Why does that angel not go with the firstborn and follow your hair as he did in the land of Egypt? Why does Michael not also bring with your executioners as he brought with the ruler of the kingdom of Persia? Where is the love of the heavens for your fathers, that they do not help you as they helped in generations of generations? It was not the time that they were silent and quiet like this time, and not your scattering among the peoples that you gathered thus. Behold, in a short while you have cast aside and thrown away five hundred, and as a merchant you extend the rope over yourself. And if you say that because of your injustice your rope is extended, behold, your injustice is not greater now than before.

Consider and see that your iniquity is less than it was before, and your sin is less than that which you committed in earlier generations. In the wilderness you provoked [God] with the worship of the calf and with the daughters of Moab, and in the land of Canaan you went astray and were scattered among stones and wood. All your pains were a mockery, and your companions were mercies, and now pain pursues you outside of order. And now you are not sick with the fear of demons as before, and you do not offer the fruits of your belly to foul demons. Your pain has increased, and there is no remedy for your wounds, unless you show when you stood firm without mockery. In Egypt you brought plagues with addition, you fell by fire, and Moses came and drove out from you toil and iniquity. In Babylon you were seventy when you were immersed as in a flood, and Daniel arose and prayed, and you ascended to the height of the kingdom. In all places physicians walked with your people, and the remedy of the spirit was not stripped from within your people. At this time there is no physician who cares for your pains, and no surgeon who heals you from your sickness. And soon that which is written will come, whose time has passed, which will remove from you the priest and the king and the one who sets perfumes. And now this has been completed in Babylon, and your orders have been nullified, and you have been scattered and have ascended in the days of Cyrus with great tumult.

In the days of Cyrus and Zerubbabel you went up as it is written. Or will you deny even this, as is your custom? The cities of Zechariah and Haggai, and also Malachi. And again it is a lie that Jeremiah also mounted. And the visions that are not true, Ezekiel saw. The cities, and neither did Daniel descend to the den of the Babylonians, nor did Obadiah seek at the end of seventy years for the redemption. Did I redeem or did I not redeem? The Redeemer will answer me as your nature demands. The Lord added the sign of his hand, or again Moses. The sign written of Moses, the Lord was not a child to teach the youth or the writings. This is the custom of Judaism, that thus you will deny and you will distort the words of the youth with freedom. You are accustomed to deny, son of Abraham, faithfully, and you bear witness to the calf that when I called them, God called them. By the power of God, Moses redeemed you from within Egypt, and you counted that redemption as base gold. And you wrote that you did not call him as God, and upon what do you test Moses with the rod of water? And again you will say that behold, even the nations do this and they mock the name of Jesus in their deeds. I accept from you when you turn wisely, and I will advise you to listen to my words discerningly.

Not on account of sin did I say to your people, or do I say now, but that you deny the clear testimony that is not obscure. And if not, show me from your teachings where it is fitting that heaven and earth and you yourself deny. With this second coming I will gather your errors from the scriptures to show you your stubbornness against the truth. You are a liar and you are not persuaded by your teachers, and the true witnesses whom you concealed have testified against you in your house. With the revelations that are within the books you contend, and you are not willing to accept the truth that is in them. You went up from Babylon, and this is clearer than the sun, and when it is concealed from you, you say, "I did not go up." If you went up, why do you deny it like a deceiver? And if not, why do you seek a house in the land of Judah? Zechariah and Haggai concealed the deceit of your deception, that they might lay a hand on the scriptures of the day of your end. With a true witness, Daniel also enters with you, who before you reveals the mystery of the coming of the king whom you rejected. With the spirit of revelation he reaches the weeks and arranges them, and at their completion he cries out his pain in the form of an image. Come, let him kill the sword of your city, or is it not written? The city is clearly revealed that if it is not destroyed, it is destined to be destroyed.

If you did not kill the one whom you killed, the covenant-killer stands; and you kill him, and he destroys the temple of your sanctuary. It was not a bond of hatred that compelled the youth, for whether you wish it or not, you will kill your king. It was not that you might kill your deliverer that I called you a murderer, but that the wickedness of your heart might be revealed, that you thirst for blood. I saw you clearly in the hidden chamber, that you are for blood, and before her, you set an evil plan on the page of books. I did not call you a killer of her king, the son of Abraham; your fathers cry out like trumpets on the day of his death. Your father Jacob saw Judah in the agony of her death, and her blood like the wine of the press, he saw the feast of the seers. Also the son of Jesse saw the confusion of the sanctuary upon him, and he decreed a judgment that filled with wrath against his killers. In his meekness and his sacrifice, Isaiah was astounded, that he endured and was silent and did not open his mouth at the time of suffering. Zechariah saw his testament in blood, that it was stained, and he loosed the captives from within the pit of lifelessness. Your fathers, are these the ones you followed, or not? Did they speak by the Spirit, or from the madness of their thoughts? If your words are true, then peace to the truth; but if not, say that they are not true, and cease from strife. Or say to me from your books, and I will answer you, or show me, and I will give place to your words.

I am weary of all the sounds of your hatred, and I cannot bear the meaning of your words. From you I learned to deny the king who redeemed me from you, and you showed me how to walk the path of his faith. If your heralds revealed to me the mystery within you, why are you angry that I became a companion to your household? I did not choose to be with you as an heir, but they gave me a portion with you when you were in distress. Your king saved me from the servitude of evil and death, and his love placed me under his lordship, though you may be able to do nothing. He came to his own, and his own did not wish to receive him, and he who saw that they rejected him chose you and forgot his own. Did he come to you or not? Speak the truth: did he choose the nations or not? Tell me as it is. If he did not come to you, why do you deny? And if he did not choose the nations, why do you confess him on their behalf? That he came is clear, and there is no light brighter than it, and that he chose the nations, the nations and their gods testify. The nations who received him confess that he came, and you deny, and their gods gave him a hand, and you flee. What do you say about the worshippers and the prostrators, that even the stars of the heavens proclaim his glory?

I am weary of all the sounds of your hatred, and I cannot bear the meaning of your words. From you I learned to deny the king who redeemed me from you, and you showed me how to walk the path of his faith. If your heralds Eloquent and deaf ones speak about him with voice and silence, and you alone are silent, your mouth from his praise. An evil envy has blinded the eye of your discernment, and you are not willing to see the light of the greatness of his glory. The evil of your nature has made you blind without remedy, and when you see, you see nothing of the things that are fitting. If you had perceived for whom these blessed ones are a stranger, you would long since have called heaven and earth to witness your weeping. If you had been content with the knowledge that curbs your wantonness, you would long since have wept for me day and night and not ceased. The blessed ones and the ranks have been hidden from your mind, and you see neither the present nor the future. And unless your own stupidity had made you blind and deaf, you would have despised and been silent, and you would not distinguish on account of what. You have become a stranger to the heavenly and the earthly, and it is known from you that the wakeful and the sick, and you are not ashamed. You have cast yourself like a demon, and every one burns above your head, and you are not investigated as to what is the cause of the madness of your soul. The path of the heavens has been cut off from your people, and you are not examined as to on what account they have been deprived of your service. The divine revelations have been nullified by your heralds, and there is no one who brings a remedy for your pains, not even with bread.

I did not know how to be buried in the multitude of your lowliness, and I was astonished at your death without law. I did not see the drunkenness of your self, you who are drunk, and I was troubled even a little by your errors. I did not hear the sound of the clamor of your wise men, and I opened your ear so that the word of life might enter into you. I did not contemplate the mysteries that are within the books, and I saw that the power that is in them was delivered by the one whom you crucified. His crucifixion swept you away from the authority of the multitude of your rank, and cast you out from the inheritance of the house of your fathers. His death, this cause of life for the dead and the living, prepared for you abominations and bound sinews. For bound sinews you are destined to enter on the day of judgment before that king whose blood you shed on the earth in a murderous manner. Without loss, the sinews will stretch out over your wickedness, not because you killed, but because you wronged his proclamation. The punishment of his servants by your hands will follow in the manner of a lament, for he sent after you after his death, and you did not heed. In that he pursues your wrongdoing, for you wronged greatly, and he spreads for you the vigil of angels and of the righteous. Response: Blessed are those who uprooted the rebellious Zion and planted the faithful church in its borders.