UNBELIEF OF JEWS by St. Athanasius
"For if they do not think these proofs sufficient, let them be persuaded at
any rate by other reasons, drawn from the oracles they themselves possess. For
of whom do the prophets say: "I was made manifest to them that sought me
not, I was found of them that asked not for me: I said Behold, here am I, to
the nation that had not called upon my name; I stretched out my hands to a
disobedient and gainsaying people." 2. Who, then, one might say to the Jews,
is he that was made manifest? For if it is the prophet, let them say when he
was hid, afterward to appear again. And what manner of prophet is this, that
was not only made manifest from obscurity, but also stretched out his hands on
the Cross? None surely of the righteous, save the Word of God only, Who,
incorporeal by nature, appeared for our sakes in the body and suffered for
all. 3. Or if not even this is sufficient for them, let them at least be
silenced by another proof, seeing how clear its demonstrative force is. For
the Scripture says: "Be strong ye hands that hang down, and feeble knees;
comfort ye, ye of faint mind; be strong, fear not. Behold, our God
recompenseth judgment; He shall come and save us. Then shall the eyes of the
blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man
leap as an hart, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be plain." 4. Now what
can they say to this, or how can they dare to face this at all? For the
prophecy not only indicates that God is to sojourn here, but it announces the
signs and the time of His coming. For they connect the blind recovering their
sight, and the lame walking, and the deaf hearing, and the tongue of the
stammerers being made plain, with the Divine Coming which is to take place.
Let them say, then, when such signs have come to pass in Israel, or where
in Jewry anything of the sort has occurred.
5. Naaman, a leper, was cleansed, but no deaf man heard nor lame walked. Elias
raised a dead man; so did Eliseus; but none blind from birth regained his
sight. For in good truth, to raise a dead man is a great thing, but it is not
like the wonder wrought by the Saviour. Only, if Scripture has not passed over
the case of the leper, and of the dead son of the widow, certainly, had it
come to pass that a lame man also had walked and a blind man recovered his
sight, the narrative would not have omitted to mention this also. Since then
nothing is said in the Scriptures, it is evident that these things had never
taken place before. 6. When, then, have they taken place, save when the Word
of God Himself came in the body ? Or when did He come, if not when lame men
walked, and stammerers were made to speak plain, and deaf men heard, and men
blind from birth regained their sight? For this was the very thing the Jews
said who then witnessed it, because they had not heard of these things having
taken place at any other time: "Since the world began it was never heard
that any one opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from
God, He could do nothing." 39. Do you look for another? But Daniel foretells
the escort time. Objections to this removed.
But perhaps, being unable, even they, to fight continually against plain
facts, they will, without denying what is written, maintain that they are
looking for these things, and that the Word of God is not yet come. For this
it is on which they are for ever harping, not blushing to brazen it out in the
face of plain facts. 2. But on this one point, above all, they shall be all
the more refuted, not at our hands, but at those of the most wise Daniel, who
marks both the actual date, and the divine sojourn of the Saviour, saying:
"Seventy weeks are cut short upon thy people, and upon the holy city, for
a full end to be made of sin, and for sins to be sealed up, and to blot out
iniquities, and to make atonement for iniquities, and to bring everlasting
righteousness, and to seal vision and prophet, and to anoint a Holy of Holies;
and thou shalt know and understand from the going forth of the word to restore
[7] and to build Jerusalem unto Christ the Prince" 3. Perhaps with regard to
the other (prophecies) they may be able even to find excuses and to put off
what is written to a future time. But what can they say to this, or can they
face it at all ? Where not only is the Christ referred to, but He that is to
be anointed is declared to be not man simply, but Holy of Holies; and
Jerusalem is to stand till His coming, and thenceforth, prophet and vision
cease in Israel.
4. David was anointed of old, and Solomon and Ezechias; but then,
nevertheless, Jerusalem and the place stood, and prophets were prophesying:
God and Asaph and Nathan; and, later, Esaias and Osee and Amos and others. And
again, the actual men that were anointed were called holy, and not Holy of
Holies.
5. But if they shield themselves with the captivity, and say that because of
it Jerusalem was not, what can they say about the prophets too ? For in fact
when first the people went down to Babylon, Daniel and Jeremy were there, and
Ezechiel and Aggaeus and Zachary were prophesying.
40. Argument (I)from the withdrawal of prophecy and destruction of Jerusalem,
(2) from the conversion of the Gentiles, and that to the God of Moses. What
more remains for the Messiah to do, that Christ has not done ?
So the Jews are trifling, and the time in question, which they refer to
the future, is actually come. For when did prophet and vision cease from
Israel, save when Christ came, the Holy of Holies ? For it is a sign, and an
important proof, of the coming of the Word of God, that Jerusalem no longer
stands, nor is any prophet raised up nor vision revealed to them,--and that
very naturally. 2. For when He that was signified was come, what need was
there any longer of any to signify Him ? When the truth was there, what need
any more of the shadow ? For this was the reason of their prophesying at
all,--namely, till the true Righteousness should come, and He that was to
ransom the sins of all. And this was why Jerusalem stood till then- namely,
that there they might be exercised in the types as a preparation for the
reality. 3. So when the Holy of Holies was come, naturally vision and prophecy
were sealed and the kingdom of Jerusalem ceased. For kings were to be anointed
among them only until the Holy of Holies should have been anointed; and Jacob
prophesies that the kingdom of the Jews should be established until Him, as
follows :-"The ruler s shall not fail from Juda, nor the Prince from his
loins, until that which is laid up for him shall come; and he is the
expectation of the nations." 4. Whence the Saviour also Himself cried aloud
and said: "The law and the prophets prophesied until John." If then there
is now among the Jews
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king or prophet or vision, they do well to deny the Christ that is come. But
if there is neither king nor vision, but from that time forth all prophecy is
sealed and the city and temple taken, why are they so irreligious and so
perverse as to see what has happened, and yet to deny Christ, Who has brought
it all to pass ? Or why, when they see even heathens deserting their idols,
and placing their hope, through Christ, on the God of Israel, do they deny
Christ, Who was born of the root of Jesse after the flesh and henceforth is
King ? For if the nations were worshipping some other God, and not confessing
the God of Abraham and isaac and Jacob and Moses, then, once more, they would
be doing well in alleging that God had not come. 5. But if the Gentiles are
honouring the same God that gave the law to Moses and made the promise to
Abraham, and Whose word the Jews dishonoured,--why are they ignorant, or
rather why do they choose to ignore, that the Lord foretold by the Scriptures
has shone forth upon the world, and appeared to it in bodily form, as the
Scripture said: "The Lord God hath shined upon us;" and again: "He
sent His Word and healed them ;" and again: "Not a messenger, not an
angel, but the Lord Himself saved them?" 6. Their state may be compared to
that of one out of his right mind, who sees the earth illumined by the sun,
but denies the sun that illumines it. For what more is there for him whom they
expect to do, when he is come ? To call the heathen? But they are called
already. To make prophecy, and king, and vision to cease ? This too has
already come to pass. To expose the godlessness of idolatry? It is already
exposed and condemned. Or to destroy death? He is already destroyed. 7. What
then has not come to pass, that the Christ must do ? What is left unfulfilled,
that the Jews should now disbelieve with impunity ? For if, I say, -which is
just what we actually see,--there is no longer king nor prophet nor Jerusalem
nor sacrifice nor vision among them, but even the whole earth is tilled with
the knowledge of God, and gentiles, leaving their godlessness, are now taking
refuge with the God of Abraham, through the Word, even our Lord Jesus Christ,
then it must be plain, even to those who are exceedingly obstinate, that the
Christ is come, and that He has illumined absolutely all with His light, and
given them the true and divine teaching concerning His Father.
8. So one can fairly refute the Jews by these and by other arguments from the
Divine Scriptures. |
