Alteercaio inter Theophilum Christianum et Simonem Judaeum Euagrio Autore

THE DISPUTATION BETWEEN THEOPHILUS THE CHRISTIAN AND SIMON THE JEW, BY EVAGRIUS THE AUTHOR. (From a manuscript codex of Vendôme, in Galland’s Library, vol. IX.) There was, therefore, a disputation concerning the law between a certain Simon the Jew and Theophilus the Christian. The Jew then spoke thus: “Cross-bearer, standard-bearer, you profess yourself to be a teacher of the Christian law. You have in me a patient listener, provided that you prove the truth not by the allurements of words or by arguments, but by the presence of the law, in response to my questions. But if you overcome me today, make me a Christian; or if I overcome you, make me a Jew from a Nazarene.” Theophilus: “Let not the hunchback boast as if he were straight.” Simon: “Whom do you worship?” Theophilus: “Truly, if we say, we also boldly prove it.” Simon: “The sacred and venerable voice of Deuteronomy resounds, saying: ‘See that I am, and there is no other God besides me’ (Deut. 32:39). And Isaiah says: ‘I am the first and I am the last, and besides me there is no God’ (Isa. 44:6).

Th.—The most sacred utterance of Christ is this: if you wish to know it, you must first believe, and only then will you be able to understand. For Isaiah rebukes you, saying: “Unless you believe, you will not understand” (Isa. 7:9, according to the LXX). Therefore, without hesitation, we know, we acknowledge, and we worship the invisible omnipotent God; and further, we profess Christ as God and Son of God. As for the saying, “I am the first and I am the last,” it signifies the two comings of Christ. Sim.—What of that which says: “There is no God besides me”? Th.—Christ, God and Son of God, spoke this of himself because he foresaw that the Antichrist would come. Concerning him, the prophet Zechariah says: “Behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, and he will not visit what is failing, nor seek out the scattered, nor save the afflicted, nor perfect the whole, and he will eat the flesh of the elect, and overturn them. A sword is upon his arm, and upon his right eye it will wither and be withered, and his right eye will be blinded” (Zech. 12:16). Therefore Christ says: “I am the first and I am the last.

Sim.—Do you then make two gods? Th.—God is one, from whom Christ is, and in whom God is: just as Abraham saw three at the oak of Mamre, and, meeting them, saluted one, saying: “Lord, if I have found grace before you, take water, and let your feet be washed, and rest yourself under this tree” (Gen. 18:4); which means that Abraham saw the presence of the divinity, and that the tree of Christ’s cross would provide a covering of refreshment for believers, concerning which the prophet says in the psalm: “God stood in the assembly of gods, and in the midst judges the gods” (Ps. 81:1). This certainly speaks of Christ, who taught in the assembly of gods and performed miracles. Hence in the forty-fourth psalm it says: “Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the rod of equity, the rod of your kingdom: you have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore your God has blessed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows” (Ps. 44:7). What God, O Jew, is the God for whom he said “God”? Surely God the Father is the God of Christ the Son, for whom and concerning whom the most accepted of prophets, Jeremiah, says: “This is God, and there is no other, nor shall he be esteemed without him: who found all wisdom, and gave it to his servant Jacob, and to his beloved Israel. After this he was seen on earth, and conversed with men” (Baruch 3:36-38). Likewise in the forty-fifth psalm it says: “Be still and see, for I am God: I shall be exalted among the nations, and I shall be exalted on earth” (Ps. 45:11).

And in the sixty-seventh psalm: "Sing to the Lord, chant to his name, make way for him who rides upon the sunset: the Lord is his name" (Ps. 67:5). It would be tedious to pursue more examples; with these few the truth is proven. Sim.—You speak rightly, indeed, to those who worship, confessing with a united spirit, agreeing with your mouth; but I want you to explain whether anywhere in Scripture God established Christ as God through himself: then at last I will consider Christ as God and Son of God. Th.—Incredulous Jew, do you now also dispute about the prophets? Yet receive an answer to your questions. God speaks to Moses, saying: "Behold, I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet" (Exod. 7:1). Now consider that Moses, a type of Christ, was the god of unbelieving nations. How much more is Christ the God of believers! For just as Moses led the people out of Egypt, from the harshest servitude of Pharaoh, so also Christ freed believers from the power of the devil.

Simon.—If therefore Christ is God and the Son of God, how then is it written in Genesis: “In the beginning God made heaven and earth” (Gen. 1:1)? He could have said: In the beginning the Father and the Son of God made heaven and earth. Theophilus.—You err, Jew, and will never find the truth unless you understand the origin of truth. For if you are willing to believe, you can also find in the beginning who Christ the Son of God is; for thus it says: “God made heaven and earth,” that is, by Christ’s authority and at his will, and in whose image he deigned to make man; for it says: “Let us make man in our image and likeness; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:26, 27). Simon.—He could have said this to the angels. Theophilus.—You err, Jew. To which of the angels did God ever say: “You are my Son; today I have begotten you” (Heb. 1:5)? And again in the psalm it says: “I will set him as a prince exalted over the kings of the earth” (Ps. 88:28). But he commands the angels to adore Christ. And again in the Canticle of Deuteronomy it says: “Rejoice, nations, with him, and let all the angels of God adore him” (Deut. 32:43, according to the LXX).

Simon.—Prove to me that Christ is the prince. Theophilus.—I have already said it. Now accept another proof, if you can believe even in this way. For when Jesus son of Nun stood across the Jordan, he saw a man standing; and a sword sharp on both sides was in his hand. Jesus said to him: “Are you ours, or of the adversaries?” “I am the prince of the armies of the Lord’s majesty” (Josh. 5:14). Simon.—And I want you to explain to me how Christ is the Son; for all the saints have been called sons of God: therefore, just as you proved to me that he is the prince, now prove that Son of God was born from God. For the Divinity is far removed from human unions, and does not mingle in embrace. Theophilus.—You speak like a Jew. For Christ is God, God the Son, firstborn, brought forth by the word, uttered by the mouth. For just as God, when in the beginning he had made man from the slime of the earth, breathed his breath into him, and man became a living soul; and so he begot his Word, that is Christ, from the womb of his heart; as it says in the second book of Kings: “And the word of the Lord came to Nathan the prophet, saying: ‘Go and say to my servant David: You will not build me a house to dwell in; but when your days are fulfilled, I will raise up your seed after you: he will build a house for my name, and I will set up his throne forever: and I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to me, and he will obtain faith, and his house will obtain it’” (2 Sam. 7:4, 5, 12, 13, 16).

And in Psalm 2 it says: "Why did the nations roar, and the peoples meditate on vain things?" (Ps. 2:1). Likewise in Psalm 44: "My heart has belched forth a good word: I declare my works to the king" (Ps. 44:2). Isaiah says: "I have heard things indeed completed and abbreviated; because God makes the Word abbreviated in every land" (Isa. 10:22). This is the Word who healed our stripes, concerning whom it says in Psalm 105: "He sent his Word, and healed them" (Ps. 105:20). Likewise in another psalm the prophet bears witness, saying that the heaven of which we spoke above made Christ, and in Christ who is the Word of God: "The heavens were strengthened by the Word of the Lord, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their power" (Ps. 32:6). This is the Word who swiftly ran through the world, and turned the souls of the erring to God through the new law; concerning whom in Psalm 146: "He who sends his Word to the earth, his speech runs swiftly" (Ps. 147:15). And Isaiah says: "Behold, the Word of the Lord became a curse to them, and they did not want it." For our prophet John, crying with prophetic mouth: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made" (John 1:1, 3).

And again the Son bears witness to the Father in a similar manner and attests to the beginnings of his own birth, saying through Solomon: "I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, firstborn before every creature. I caused the unfailing light to rise in the heavens. I dwelt in the highest places, and my throne is in a pillar of cloud" (Ecclus. 24:5–7). You see, therefore, that when your fathers were departing from Egypt, it was Christ who preceded them in the pillar of cloud. Likewise in the Proverbs of the same: "The Lord established me at the beginning of his ways, in the beginning of his works: before he made the earth, and before all the hills he begot me. When he prepared the heavens, I was with him; and when he set apart his seat, when he made strong the foundations of the earth, I was with him, arranging. I was the one in whom he rejoiced, and I daily delighted in his face, when he rejoiced in the completed world" (Prov. 8:22, 30, according to the Septuagint).

Simon: He could have said this concerning wisdom. Theophilus: You are mistaken, Jew, and your understanding is covered as if by a veil of ignorance. Not without reason did the most holy Moses cover his face with a veil, for that veil covers your hearts. Draw near, therefore, to the Lord and the Son of God, and the covering of ignorance will be removed from your understanding. You think it was said of wisdom, not knowing that Christ himself is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24). Indeed, your kings who reigned in succession could not receive wisdom and power except through the name of Christ. I will give Daniel as the authority for this, who says: "The vision and prophecy will be sealed. Eternal righteousness will arise, and the Holy of Holies will be anointed; and you will know and understand from the outcome of the speech in responding; and I will build Jerusalem up to the Christ of christs and the King of your kings; the anointing of Samaria will fail, that horn" (Dan. 9:24). Then your kings were anointed, and all the prophets fell silent, because the one of whom they spoke had come, as Isaiah says: "I am the one who spoke, and I have come to proclaim the good news to you" (Isa. 52:6). Therefore, as we have said, he himself is the Christ of christs, the Lord of lords. I will give Isaiah as the authority, who says: "Thus says the Lord to my Christ, the Lord whose right hand he held, so that the nations might hear him: I will break the strength of kings, I will open gates before him, and cities will not be closed.

I will open bronze gates, and I will break iron bars, and I will give you hidden treasures (Isa. 45:1). To whom, then, did the Father hold out the right hand, if not to Christ the Son, whom all nations heard, as the Psalm says: You have always held my right hand with me (Ps. 72:24)? Or which city is closed to him? And for whom do all bronze gates lie open? Or will he dare to dispute even about his birth? when the same prophet says: The word of the Lord came to Ahaz: Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God in the depth of the underworld, or in the height above. And Ahaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord. And he said: Hear now, house of David: Your struggle with men will not be a small one; and therefore you will engage in struggle with men, because the Lord God will give you a sign: Behold, a Virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and his name will be called Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us (Isa. 7:10–14).

Simon.—I believe the prophets. Moreover, I accept Isaiah as most authoritative; but I think he spoke of a different virgin. For when Salmanassar, king of the Assyrians, sent his general to Jerusalem to revile the living God, then Isaiah prophesied against King Salmanassar, saying: “He has spurned you, he has mocked you, the virgin daughter of Zion. She shakes her head at you, daughter of Jerusalem” (Isa. 37:22). At that time, when an angel struck down one hundred eighty thousand from the Assyrian camp, God was with us. Theophilus.—You err, Jew: you still do not remove your unbelief. If, then, you speak of the daughter of Jerusalem, what son did she bear? Or who ate butter and honey? Or what infant was it who, before he knew his father or mother, carried off the spoils of Samaria? Or what son of the seed of David did she nourish? For Isaiah said: “Behold, a virgin will conceive in her womb, and will bear a son, and his name will be called Emmanuel. He will eat butter and honey: before he knows to call father or mother, he will receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria against the king of Assyria” (Isa. 7:14).

Simon.—Explain to me, then, what these things mean, so that I may be able to believe; what is understood by honey or butter, or what spoils of Samaria Christ received. Theophilus.—If you remove your unbelief, you will hear the truth, lest that which is written be fulfilled in you: Like deaf asps stopping their ears, which do not hear the voice of the charmers (Ps. 57:5). For Isaiah boldly cries out against your unbelief, saying: The words of this book will be to you like a sealed book; if you give it to a man who knows letters to read, he says: I cannot read, for it is sealed. Or if you give it to one who does not know letters, and say read, he will say: I have not learned (Isa. 29:11-12). First, because Christ, according to the infancy of all children, ate butter and honey. This we believe, and thus we keep our life; and because on the eighth day he was circumcised. Butter is understood as the anointing of the Spirit; honey, as the sweetness of his teaching, which we attain. The spoils of Samaria he carried off in this manner: when he was an infant, he received gifts from the Magi, gold, frankincense, and myrrh; and later, when he was grown and taught and demonstrated all truth, Samaria and Damascus, having abandoned idols, believed well, leaving behind the Assyrian, that is, the devil.

Simon.—You do indeed clearly reveal the mysteries in every respect. And since you have proven that Christ is the Son of God, brought forth from the mouth of God, born from the Word, and born of a Virgin, how then do you assert that he was born from the seed of David in the city of Bethlehem? Theophilus.—I will give the author Isaiah: “A rod shall go forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall ascend from its root, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon it” (Isa. 11:1). For the rod was the Virgin Mary, who proceeded from the seed of David, from whom Christ, the flower of the patriarchs, is born according to the flesh. For God, who performed a sign in Numbers so that a donkey would speak, wished to perform a much greater sign, so that Christ would be nourished from a virgin. Or what contest would there be between you and me, if not that a virgin had given birth? Simon.—I believe that a virgin could, as you say, conceive from the Spirit. The question is whether a virgin could give birth. Theophilus.—Unbeliever, God could break a rock and produce water for the thirsty; how much more could God command that a virgin bring forth a child! I will tell you another testimony, if you will believe Baruch, the son of Neriah, who prophesied in Babylon.

Simon.—Do you then consider me so unfaithful that I do not accept Baruch, the disciple of Jeremiah, who was sent so many times by Jeremiah to address the people, and whom Jeremiah ordered to write down his prophecy? And because Jeremiah knew that the people would be led into captivity, he prophesied; but he made no mention of Christ. Theophilus.—How then does he, near the end of his book, prophesy about his birth, and about the appearance of his garment, and about his passion and resurrection, saying: “This is my anointed one, my chosen one, cast forth from an uncontaminated womb, said to be born and to have suffered”? And also about his tunic woven from above, and all these things; Simon, if you believe, or when you come to the fullness of our Gospels, you will recognize them as fulfilled. But that he was born in Bethlehem, hear the prophet Micah saying: “And you, Bethlehem, house of that Ephrathah, will not be small, so that you may be established among the thousands of Judah. For from you shall come forth one to be prince in Israel, and his possession is from the beginning, from the days of eternity” (Micah 5:2).

Simon.—We have read many things, but we do not understand them in that way; therefore I wish, through each thing I ask, to learn what is confirmed by the testimony of truth. Moreover, since God commanded circumcision, which he first handed down to the patriarchs—and you have professed above that Christ had this circumcision—how then do you urge me to believe you, who forbid circumcision? Theophilus.—We forbid the circumcision of the flesh, but we gladly accept those who are circumcised as believers. For Abraham, who before he was circumcised became a friend of God, attained righteousness through faith, not through circumcision (2 Paralipomenon 20:7; Isaiah 41:8; James 5:23). For it says: "I have established you as the father of many nations before God, because you believed" (Genesis 17:4). Moreover, it says: "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3). For he heard this before he was circumcised, and afterward he received circumcision, showing that two peoples would come to the faith of Christ: one from circumcision, and one from the foreskin. For if Christ had not been circumcised, how would you believe me today, or the prophets, that he would come from the seed of David? For circumcision is a sign of lineage, not of salvation.

Simon.—Then how was it that the son of Moses, while still uncircumcised, was strangled by an angel, unless his mother Sephora had circumcised him with a sharp stone? And when the blood was about to flow, she prayed, saying: “Let the blood of the boy’s circumcision stand still” (Exod. 4:23). Theophilus.—You speak against yourself, Jew; and I told you above that Moses was a type of Christ: everything he did prefigured Christ as an image. For Sephora, the woman who circumcised the boy, is understood as the Synagogue. As for what is said: “Let the blood of the boy’s circumcision stand still,” God says to Moses: “Build me an altar of uncircumcised stones, and you shall not put iron upon them” (Exod. 20:25); this signifies that when Christ came, he was to build the Church from the uncircumcised people. Simon.—Prove to me that Christ circumcised no one. Theophilus.—Believe, and you will prove it to yourself: when you begin to go through the fullness of the Gospels, you will find there Matthew the apostle, a publican, and Zacchaeus, the chief of the publicans, and many others uncircumcised who believed along with the Jews. For if the sacrifices of the world—the victims of bulls, rams, and lambs—were once commanded to be offered, and then were forbidden and abolished, and the lesser people (that is, ours) was preferred to the greater, and the New Testament was set above the Old, so too he commanded that circumcision be celebrated no longer of the flesh, but of the heart.

God says to Rebecca in Genesis: "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will be divided from your belly, and one people will overcome the other, and the greater will serve the lesser" (Gen. 25:23). And in Deuteronomy it says: "You will be nations at the head, but the unbelieving people at the tail" (Deut. 28:44). And Jacob, blessing Ephraim and Manasseh, crossing his hands, placing the right hand on the younger, showed the change of creation. But concerning the newest Testament, Isaiah says thus: "Behold, I make new things, which will now arise, and I will place rivers in the desert" (Isa. 43:19), that is, the Gospels in the Church. And Jeremiah says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord; and I will finish the house of Israel and the house of Judah, a new testament; not such a testament as I arranged for your fathers, on the day when I led them out of the land of Egypt" (Jer. 11:7). Now hear what the lawgiver Moses says about circumcision: "In the last days the Lord will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed to your Lord God according to the commandment" (Deut. 30:6). And Jeremiah says: "Men of Judah, and you who dwell in Jerusalem, renew your fallow land for yourselves, and do not sow upon thorns. Be circumcised to your God, and circumcise the foreskins of your hearts, lest anger go out and burn, and there be none to extinguish it" (Jer. 4:3, 4). And to Joshua son of Nun God says: "Make for yourself very sharp stone knives, and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time" (Josh. 5:2). Was iron lacking then?

But God was speaking to our Lord Jesus Christ, that through his apostles he spiritually circumcised hearts; so much so that our apostle, called Simon, later received the name Peter. Simon.—What you have shown me is clear: but what can circumcision of the heart be, and what foreskin is to be circumcised from the heart? Theophilus.—All lust and desire is conceived in the heart; therefore the circumcision of the New Testament is such as God and his Son Christ have shown. Let us circumcise lust, avarice, malice, greed, thefts, frauds, fornications; and everything you do not wish done to you, do not do to another. This is the circumcision of Christians, which the first of the saints also had, namely Enoch, Noah, Job, and Melchizedek; who had not circumcision of the flesh, but of the heart. God could have formed Adam circumcised. Simon.—I burn with vehement thought that Christ endured such a cursed and shameful passion; if indeed what you say is true, that he was affixed by his fathers to the gibbet of the cross. We know that Haman was hanged by our fathers for his own merit, who had sought the destruction of our race, on whose completed death (after a year) we rejoice, we celebrate solemn festivals of vows, which we received handed down from our fathers; and we read that Absalom, who was a parricide for the slaughter of his father, hung in a tree.

But if Christ endured the gibbet of this death and hung upon the cross, why have we not received this from our fathers, nor found it suffered in our Scriptures, so that we might rejoice in it as an enemy of our people? You could blush, Theophilus, if you do not approve this statement. For it is written in Deuteronomy: “Cursed is the man who hangs on a tree” (Deut. 21:23). Th.—First, accept the reasoning of this statement. Recall the earlier reading of Deuteronomy, concerning which it is said: For thus Moses says: “If anyone has sinned, let him be punished by the judgment of death as an example: you shall hang him on a tree; and everyone who hangs on a tree shall be cursed” (Ibid., 22). But this he says of a sinner who has committed a mortal sin. Christ, however, did not commit sin, as all the prophets testify; but he had to suffer, so that Scripture might be fulfilled. For Isaiah says: “He who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth; but the Lord delivered him for our sins” (Isa. 53:9). For elsewhere we have shown the prophet saying: “Behold, the word of the Lord became a curse to them, and they rejected it.” And again he says: “He was counted among the accursed” (Ibid., 12). Hear also Jeremiah in Lamentations saying: “The spirit of our face, Christ the Lord, was seized for the destruction of our people; under whose shadow we live among the nations” (Lam. 4:20).

We know, however, that the most holy David rested in peace, full of years, and endured no passion of death or of the cross. Hear, then, in the twenty-first psalm, Christ speaking: "They pierced my hands and my feet; they counted all my bones. But they looked and saw me; they divided my garments among themselves, and cast lots for my robe. But you, Lord, do not delay your help; look to my defense" (Ps. 21:17–20), and the rest that is said in the three following verses. Likewise through Isaiah: "I stretched out my hands to a people unbelieving and contradicting, who walk in ways not good, but after their sins" (Isa. 55:2). Likewise in Jeremiah: "Come, let us put wood into his bread, and let us wipe out his life from the earth" (Jer. 11:19). Likewise in Deuteronomy: "Your life will hang before your eyes, and you will fear day and night, and you will not trust your life" (Deut. 28:66). Likewise in the one hundred fortieth psalm: "The raising of my hands, the evening sacrifice" (Ps. 140:2). Likewise in Zechariah: "And they looked at me, whom they pierced" (Zech. 12:10). Likewise in the eighty-seventh psalm: "I cried out to you, Lord, all day; I stretched out my hands to you" (Ps. 87:10). Likewise in Numbers: "As a man, God is hung, nor does he suffer threats like a son of man." And in the Song of Songs, from the person of the Church, it says: "My brother, white and ruddy, pierced by soldiers with a lance" (Song 5:10).

What does that whiteness signify other than the faith of the people? For the redness signifies the passion. In this, his first coming, that he might endure all humility and deformity even unto death, hear finally in the twenty-first psalm what he says: "But I am a worm and not a man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people. All who saw me mocked me, they spoke with their lips and shook their head." Also there: "My strength has dried up like a potsherd, my tongue has cleaved to my jaws, and you have led me into the dust of death." (Ps. 21:7, 8, 16). Also there: "I shall please the Lord more than a newborn calf, putting forth horns and hoofs" (Ps. 68:32). What do you say, Jew? Was David horned? Come now, understand that cluster of grapes in Numbers (Num. 13:24), which two bearers carried back from the land of promise: which was certainly a figure of Christ hanging on the wood. Coming from the land of promise, that is, from Mary, who was of earthly lineage. Moreover, the bearers of the litter showed the figure of two peoples: one former, namely your people turning their backs on Christ; the other later, looking back at the cluster, that is, our people is understood.

SIMON: What will you say about the pomegranates that were brought to Moses along with that same cluster? THEOPHILUS: The pomegranates most rightly followed the cluster. It was a figure of the Church, having within itself a people counted by the redness of Christ’s blood. SIMON: What will you say about the fig trees, or by what arguments of your discourses will you prove that the fig is not sin, since when the first-formed Adam in his transgression covered his private parts with leaves from the fig tree, which was the itch and bitterness of sin? THEOPHILUS: You understand that on the surface, Jew; for the fig tree and the covering of its leaves is understood as a figure of the old man. For if you were willing to consider the spiritual man, that is, the inner man, you would find that the fruit from the fig trees brought to Moses from the land of promise is spiritual, just as Hezekiah, king of Judah, after the increase of his life, received a mass of figs for the health of his flesh. Adding and saying: “Take for yourself a mass of figs from the earth and apply it as a poultice, and you will be healed” (4 Kings 20:7), so that, with the impieties broken, you may receive the health of lust. Let us now return to the humility of Christ and his coming, which we were discussing; you will hear Isaiah saying: “Lord, who has believed our hearing, to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

We have announced concerning him, as an infant: he had no form, nor beauty; and we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty: a man placed in affliction, and one who knows how to endure infirmities; because his face was turned against, it was devalued, and not counted. He bore our sins, and is in pains for us. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb before its shearer, he did not open his mouth: his judgment was taken away in humility. But who will recount his birth? because his life will be taken from the earth: he was led to death by the wicked of my people; and I gave riches for his death, because he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth: but the Lord wished to deliver him for our sins, and he was counted among the wicked (Isa. 53:1, according to the Septuagint). Likewise there, testifying concerning the humility of his first coming, he says: I placed my back to the lashes, and my cheeks to the blows, I did not turn my face from the foulness of spittings: and the Lord was my helper (Isa. 50:6, 7). And Jeremiah says: I was led like a sheep to the sacrifice, and I did not know (Jer. 11:19).

Concerning this lamb, which is a type of Christ, Moses celebrated the Passover in Egypt for the liberation of the people. Nor could the people of God be freed from the house of servitude and from the oppression of Pharaoh in any other way, unless a lamb were slain, and the Passover celebrated, and the doorposts of the houses marked with its blood, so that when the destroying angel came, having seen the blood on the houses, they would be saved. This sacrament was fulfilled before the foretold coming of Christ. For this reason, in his first coming he was slain, so that he might free us from the power of the devil and from the worship of idols. Moreover, he is called a yearling because after he was baptized in the Jordan, he preached for a year, and thus suffered. And we are considered to be marked on the forehead with his blood, so that in the second coming, when the destruction of this world occurs, we may be able to be saved. The prophet Ezekiel is the authority for this matter, whom the bearers use for carrying burdens. I will give him, who himself signifies the two comings of Christ, saying: "Pass through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who are sorrowing and groaning because of the iniquity which is done in the land" (Ezekiel 9:4). And again, the second coming signifies the destruction of the unmarked, saying: "Go into the city, and spare neither the old, nor the young, nor the women, nor the children; spare none with the sword. But those upon whom you find the mark, do not touch, and do not spare my saints" (Ibid. 5, 6).

This sign Rahab the harlot, who was a type of the Church, hung a scarlet cord from her window, so that when Joshua son of Nun came to destroy Jericho, upon seeing the scarlet sign, Rahab and those who were in her house would be saved. Thus also in the coming of Christ, when Christ the Son of God begins to come to burn this age with fire, the Church and those who have been marked on the forehead within her will be saved. So also Hosea, who held the type of Christ, commands that a harlot be taken as a wife, that is, the Church, whom Christ took from the fornication of idols, because the beginning of fornication is the service of idols. Simon: Therefore the Church is a harlot? Theophilus: For what does "harlot" mean, except one who denies the profit of faith to none who come to her? For the Synagogue having been repudiated, Christ took the Church to himself. For hear Jeremiah saying: I dismissed your mother, and I gave her a bill of divorce, which I gave to your mother, because I dismissed her. And another prophet says: You are judged against your mother, because I am not a husband. This is also the power of God, Christ, of whom Solomon in the person of the Jews prophesied, saying: Let us surround the just man, since he is opposed to our works. For he reproaches us with our sins and our discipline. He calls himself the Son of God. Let us see if his words are true: let us condemn him to a most shameful death. For there will be regard from our words, or from his.

For if he is truly the Son of God, he will rescue him from the hand of his adversaries. They thought this and erred: their malice blinded them, and they did not know the sacraments of God (Wisdom 2:12, 13, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22). And Moses says in Deuteronomy: "You shall not kill the innocent and the just" (Exodus 23:7). But that he rose from the dead, Scripture testifies in a psalm, saying: "For you will not leave my soul in the underworld, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; you will fill me with joy at the sight of your face" (Psalm 15:10, 11). Likewise in Psalm 29: "Lord, you have brought up my soul from the underworld" (Psalm 29:4). Likewise in a psalm it says: "I slept and took sleep, and I arose because the Lord will receive me" (Psalm 3:6). And Hosea: "He will bring us to life after two days, and on the third day he will raise us up" (Hosea 6:3). And the Lord to Moses in Exodus: "Go down," he says, "and testify to the people, and purify them, so that they may wash their garments and be ready on the third day" (Exodus 19:21). And Isaiah: "Now I will arise," says the Lord, "now I will be glorified, now you see, now you blush: your fear will be in vain; fire will consume you." And concerning his death: "The sun will set at midday and the day of light will be darkened, and I will turn your feast days into mourning" (Amos 8:9). And Jeremiah says: "He died while it was still day" (Jeremiah 15:9).

That he ascended into the heavens, David testifies in Psalm 66: "Make way," he says, "for him who ascends above the west; the Lord is his name" (Ps. 66:5). Likewise in Psalm 46: "God ascended with jubilation, the Lord with the sound of the trumpet" (Ps. 46:6). Likewise in Psalm 18: "From the highest heaven is his going forth, and there is none who hides from his heat" (Ps. 18:7). Likewise in Psalm 24, as Christ ascends into the heavens: it was said to the angelic gatekeepers: "Lift up your gates, O princes, and be raised up, eternal gates, and the king of glory will enter" (Ps. 24:7, 8, 10). But those who did not know Christ the Word insinuated into the Virgin, marveling that in such a guise and bearing a victorious trophy he ascended the sky, ask: "Who is this king of glory?" To whom the answer is given: "The Lord of hosts himself is the king of glory." Likewise in Psalm 109: "The Lord said to my Lord: sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet" (Ps. 109:1). Concerning the splendor of the kingdom of his second coming, in Daniel: "I saw by night in a vision, and behold, in the clouds of the sky, as it were a son of man coming; he came as far as the Ancient of Days. And royal power was given to him; and all splendor will serve him; and his faith is eternal, which will not be moved, and his kingdom will not be corrupted" (Dan. 7:13, 14). "Say among the nations: the Lord has reigned from the wood" (Ps. 95:10). Likewise in Isaiah: "A boy has been born to us, whose empire is upon his shoulder; and his name will be called the Angel of Great Counsel" (Isa. 9:6).

And if you wish to know the entire fullness of the Gospels, you will find in our John that Christ, going to his passion, carried the cross on his shoulders, for which Isaiah says this. Simon: You have shown me all things indeed prefigured in Christ with clear proof from my Scriptures, and I would have been willing to believe, if the consideration of this psalm did not recall me. For this psalm was spoken of Solomon: "God, your judgment" (Ps. 71:2), which you proposed to me a while ago; so much so that its title refutes you, since it says: "A psalm concerning Solomon." Theophilus: That envious one who deceived the first-formed man and deceived your people, through whose envy death came into the world—this one has preoccupied the understanding of your heart, so that you do not understand a manifest thing placed in the light. For Solomon reigned in Judea for forty years from Dan to Beersheba; and afterwards he sinned, as is said in the third book of Kings: "And Solomon did evil, and did not walk in the way of his father David; but he built the high place of Chemosh, the idols of Moab, and the idols of the king of the Ammonites, and Ashtaroth, the idols of the abomination of the Sidonians; and God raised up an adversary to Solomon himself, Hadad the Idumean" (1 Kings 11:6, 7, 14). But the kingdom of Christ is extended over the whole world. Therefore the prophet says of him: "It will endure with the sun and before the moon for ages, and it will rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth" (Ps.

(Isa. 61:1, 5, 8). It does not speak of Solomon; I have shown you the kingdom and the years above. Simon: The enemy of my fathers, the devil, who was blinding my mind, is withdrawing, as I see. For I am beginning to recognize the light of truth. Theophilus: Believe, then, enlightened one, to depart from the bonds of darkness. For thus Isaiah says of Christ: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me. He sent me to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken in heart, to lead out those bound in chains and from the prison house, to open the eyes of the blind" (Isa. 61:1). What else can be understood, except the men of this world, held in the blindness of ignorance and bound by the chains of the devil? Simon: You have indeed revealed many unheard-of things to me; but still a scruple of distrust remains in my soul, because you neglect the Sabbath, which God commanded to be kept and observed, while you observe all other things. Moreover, you consume food and wine in a gentile manner, although God specifically commanded what should be taken from animals and from fish, and what should be practiced or abhorred, and that the dead of these should not be touched. Unless you prove this through the Scriptures, I am in danger of believing.

Th.—I said above that the devil envies you, namely that you are the son of your fathers, who, supported by so many benefits, freed from Egypt, stood around the Red Sea in place of metallic bronze; whence, also furnished with lavish feasts, sated with heavenly manna, they transgressed by forgetfulness the profane gods they used to worship, and dared to make demands. Rightly did Jeremiah say of you: "If the Ethiopian changes his skin, and the leopard his spots, so also you" (Jer. 13:23). The evil sabbaths were taught, that is, the imaginary rest of the seventh day was handed down, first because Joshua son of Nun, in order to conquer Jericho, went around the walls for seven days in turn, bearing the ark of the covenant with its warlike arms; on the seventh day they went around seven times. The truth is manifest: either they began on the sabbath, or on the sabbath, with the walls falling, they conquered Jericho. Moreover, God rejects the human sabbath, as Isaiah says: "Your fast and your feast day and your sabbaths my soul hates. You have caused me weariness: I will not forgive your sins" (Isa. 1:13). But that sabbath God desires, that you rest from evil works; so that in the thousandth year, which is the sabbath of sabbaths, you may be found clean from evil works. These will be the holy observances in which God delights. As for food, what you hesitate about whether you ought to eat, you are forbidden not swine's flesh but the deeds of pigs to admit.

Similarly, you mix pleasure with mud, you join your sister to you in intercourse, you incite blood against blood, you scour the earth with plunder, you make your festivals public, you pray in the streets. Behold how you sin, and you do not understand that it is written about you in the psalm: They were sated with sons, and they left what remained to their little ones (Ps. 14:14). This is your sin and that of your posterity. As for fish, you clothe your skin with scales and eat them; but the other things you claim to avoid, when caught in nets and mixed among a multitude of fish, you thoroughly dry out and eat sweetly in some kind of seasoning. As for the Christians' wine, show me through the Scriptures where it is forbidden to drink, and where we are prohibited from eating your unleavened bread. You will hear the prophet saying: Their feet are swift to shed blood (Ps. 13:3). And again: Your hands are full of blood. And in Deuteronomy: Their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and their stock from Gomorrah. Their grape is a gall-grape, and their cluster is bitterness. Their wine is the anger of dragons, the incurable anger of asps (Deut. 32:32-33). If you refuse to believe these so many and such great testimonies, Simon, you contradict your own salvation. Read Daniel, Simon, and you will find Nebuchadnezzar a barbarian: he himself recognized the Son of God, whom you are slow to acknowledge. Did we not cast three men into the furnace? Behold, I see four men, and the face of the fourth is like the Son of God (Dan. 3:91). What do you say, Jew?

See that the rebuke of the prophet Habakkuk is not fulfilled in you, who says: “Behold, you despisers, and look, and despair; for I am working a work in your days which you would not believe if anyone told you” (Hab. 1:5). Simon.—Bearer of salvation, Theophilus, good physician of the sick, I can delay no longer. Order me to be catechized and consecrated with the sign of Christ’s faith. For I believe that through the imposition of your hands I will obtain the remission of my sins; indeed, just as Jacob blessed and through the imposition of the hand received so that he became greater from lesser, so Ephraim and Manasseh were enlarged through the imposition of hands. Then Theophilus baptized Simon, and he received the faith. Simon began to give thanks to God, saying: I give thanks to you, Jesus, whom I have not seen face to face, but now I believe in you with my spirit and whole mind. I give thanks to you, Jesus, whom I have not heard, but now having heard I invoke you, Jesus, of whom I previously had no understanding. Now I desire my understanding to be in you, through whom I have come to know Theophilus, your disciple. Lord Jesus Christ, if indeed I am worthy of your calling, confirm me. For you show the way to those who err, you recall the lost, you raise the dead, you shape the unfaithful in your faith, and you illuminate the eyes of the heart of the blind.

You are the one who was with our fathers in the desert; you are the light of the lampstands; you are the altars and the bread of the presentation; you are the altar and the voluntary victim; you are my very life, the pearl, the crystal, the silver yoke. I pray, Lord, do not remember my ignorance, my unhappiness: for you are the one who bestows hidden benefits, you who have deigned to show me everything. To you be honor, power, praise, glory, here and for all ages of ages. Amen.