Accordingly the times must be inquired into of the predicted and future nativity of the Christ, and of His passion, and of the exter- mination of the city of Jerusalem, that is, its devastation. For Daniel says, that "both the holy city and the holy place are extermi- nated together with the coming Leader, and that the pinnacle is destroyed unto ruin."^ And so the times of the coming Christ, the Leader,^ must be inquired into, which we shall trace in Daniel; and, after computing them, shall prove Him to be come, even on the ground of the times prescribed, and of com- petent signs and operations of His. Which matters we prove, again, on the ground of the consequences which were ever announced as to follow His advent; in order that we may be- lieve all to have been as well fulfilled as fore- seen.
In such wise, therefore, did Daniel predict concerning Him, as to show both when and in what time He was to set the nations free; and how, after the passion of the Christ, that city had to be exterminated. For he says thus: " In the first year under Darius, son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who reigned over the kingdom of the Chaldees, I Daniel understood in the books the number of the years...And while I was yet speak- ing in my prayer, behold, the man Gabriel, whom I saw in the vision in the beginning, flying; and he touched me, as it were, at the hour of the evening sacrifice, and made me understand, and spake with me, and said, Daniel I am now come out to imbue thee with understanding; in the beginning of thy sup- plication went out a word. And I am come to announce to thee, because thou art a man Severus, and hence accepts the date we have mentioned, (or this treatise.]
6 Comp. John xx. 28.
7 See Dan. ix. 26 (especially in the LXX.).
CHAP. VMI.]
AN ANSWER TO THE JEWS.
of desires; ' and ponder thou on the word, and understand in the vision. Seventy hebdomads have been abridged " upon thy commonalty, and upon the holy city, until delinquency be made inveterate, and sins sealed, and right- eousness obtained by entreaty, and righteous- ness eternal introduced; and in order that vision and prophet may be sealed, and an holy one of holy ones anointed. And thou shalt kinow, and thoroughly see, and understand, from the going forth of a word for restoring and rebuilding Jerusalem unto the Christ, the Leader, hebdomads (seven and an half, and ^) Ixii and an half: and it shall convert, and shall be built into height and entrenchment, and the times shall be renewed: and after these Ixii hebdomads shall the anointing be exterminated, and shall not be; and the city and the holy place shall he exterminate to- gether with the Leader, who is making His advent; and they shall be cut short as in a deluge, until (the) end of a war, which shall be cut short unto ruin. And he shall confirm a testament in many. In one hebdomad and the half of the hebdomad shall be taken away my sacrifice and libation, and in the holy place the execration of devastation, (and •*) until the end of (the) time consummation shall be given with regard to this devastation." s Observe we, therefore, the limit, — how, in truth, he predicts that there are to be Ixx hebdomads, wifht'n which if they receive Him, " it shall be built into height and entrench- ment, and the times shall be renewed." But God, foreseeing what was to be — that they will not merely not receive Him, but will both persecute and deliver Him to death — both re- capitulated, and said, that in Ix and ii and an half of an hebdomad He is born, and an holy one of holy ones is anointed; but that when vii hebdomads^ and an half were fulfilling, He had to suffer, and the holy city had to be exterminated after one and an half hebdomad, — ^whereby, namely, the seven and an half hebdomads have been completed. For he says thus: " And the city and the holy place to be exterminated together with the leader » Vir desideriorum; Gr. ai-Tjp cn-idu^iui'; Eng. ver. "a man greatly beloved." Elsewhere Tertullian has another rendering — "mise.rabilis." See dejej. cc. vii, ix.
J2 Or, " abbreviated; " breviatse sunt; (jv. <iyjvtTti.rfit\<Ta.v. For this rendering, and the interpretations which in ancient and mod- ern days have been founded on it, see G. S. Faber's Dissert, on the prophecy of the seventy weeks, pp. 5, 6, 109-112. (London, 1811.) The whole work will well repay perusal.
3 These words are given, by Oehler and Rig., on the authority of Paraelius. The mss. and early editions are without them.
4 Also supplied by Pamelius.
5 See Dan. ix. 24-27. It seemed best to render with the strictest literality, without regard to anything else; as an idea will thus be given of *the condition of the text, which, as it stands, differs widely, as will be seen, from the Hebrew and also from the LXX., as it stands in the ed. Tisch. Lips, i860, to which I al- ways adapt my references.
° Hebdomadfj is preferred to Oehler's -as, a reading which he follows apparently on slender authority.
who is to come; and they shall be cut short as in a deluge; and he shall destroy the pinnacle unto ruin." ' Whence, therefore, do we show that the Christ came within the Ixii and an half hebdomads? We shall count, moreover, from the first year of Darius, as at this par- ticular time is shown to Daniel this particular vision; for he says, "And understand and conjecture that at the completion of thy word * I make thee these answers." Whence we are bound to compute from the first year of Darius, when Daniel saw this vision.
Let us see, therefore, how the years are filled up until the advent of the Christ: — xviiii 9 years (19). xl and i years (41).
xxiiii years (24). one year.
xxi years (21), xii years (12).
For Darius reigned Artaxerxes reigned Then King Ochus (who is also called Cyrus) reigned Argus...Another Darius, who is also named Melas,. Alexander the Macedonian,.
Then, after Alexander, who had reigned over both Medes and Persians, whom he had reconquered, and had established his king- dom firmly in Alexandria, when withal he called that (city) by his own name; '° after him reigned, (there, in Alexandria,) Soter,...I XXXV years (35). To whom succeeds Philadelphus, reigning xxx and viii years (38)t To him succeeds Euergetes,.. xxv years (25).
Then Philopator...xvii years (17) After him Epiphanes, •. xxiiii years (24).
Then another Euergetes,...xxviiii years (29). Then another Soter,.. I xxxviii years (38).
Cleopatra,...xx years v months (20 5-12). Yet again Cleopatra reigned joint- ly v/ith Augustus. xiii years (13.)
After Cleopatra, Augus- tus reigned other. xliii years (43). For all the years of the empire of Augustus were Ivi years (56).
Let US see, moreover, how in the forty-first year of the empire of Augustus, when he has been reigning for xx and viii years after the death of Cleopatra, the Christ is born. (And the same Augustus survived, after Christ is born, XV years; and the remaining times of years to the day of the birth of Christ will 7 There is no trace of these last words in Tischendorf's LXX. here; and only in his footnotes is the " pinnacle '" mentioned.
8 Or, "speech." The reference seems to be to ver. 23, but there is no such statement in Daniel.
9 So Oehler; and I print all these numbers uniformly — as in the former part of the present chapter — exactly in accordance with the Latin forms, for the sake of showing how easily, in such calculations, errors may creep in.
10 Comp. Ps. xlix. n (in LXX, Ps. xlviii. xz).
i6o AN ANSWER TO THE JEWS.
[chap. IX.
bring us to the xl first year, which is the xx and viiith of Augustus after the death of Cleopatra.) There are, (then,) made up cccxxx and vii years, v months: (whence are filled up Ixii hebdomads and an half: which make up ccccxxxvii years, vi months:) on the day of the birth of Christ. And (then) " righteousness eternal " was manifested, and " an Holy One of holy ones was anointed " — that is, Christ — and " sealed was vision and prophet," and " sins " were remitted, which, through faith in the name of Christ, are washed away' for all who believe on Him. But what does he mean by saying that " vision and prophecy are sealed? ' ' That all prophets ever announced of Him that He was to come, and had to suffer. Therefore, since the prophecy was fulfilled through His advent, for that reason he said that " vision and proph- ec)"^ 7oere sea/edj" inasmuch as He is the signet of all prophets, fulfilling all things which in days bygone they had announced of Him.* For after the advent of Christ and His passion there is no longer "vision or prophet" to announce Him as to come. In short, if this is not so, let the Jews exhibit, subsequently to Christ, any volumes of prophets, visible miracles wrought by any angels, (such as those) which in bygone days the pa- triarchs saw until the advent of Christ, who is now come; since which event " sealed is vision and prophecy," that is, confirmed. And justly does the evangelist ^ write, "The law and the prophets (were) until John" the Baptist. For, on Christ's being baptized, that is, on His sanctifying the waters in His own baptism,* all the plenitude of bygone spiritual grace-gifts ceased in Christ, sealing as He did all vision and prophecies, which by His advent He fulfilled. Whence most firmly does he assert that His advent " seals visions and prophecy."
Accordingly, showing, (as we have done,) both the number of the years, and the time of the Ix two and an half fulfilled hebdomads, on completion of which, (we have shown) that Christ is come, that is, has been born, let us see what (mean) other "vii and an half heb- domads," which have been subdivided in the abscision of s the former hebdomads; (let us see, namely,) in what event they have been fulfilled:— For, after Augustus who survived after the birth of Christ, are made up.
To whom succeeded Tibe- rius Caesar, and held the empire (In the fiftieth year of his empire Christ suffered, being about xxx years of age when he suffered.)
Again Caius Caesar, also called Caligula,, XV years (15).
XX years, vii months, xxviii days (20 etc.).
iii years, viii months, xiii days (3 etc.). xi years, ix months, xiii days (II etc.). vii months, vi days. (7 etc.). iii days, viii mos., xxviidays(8mos.)
' Diluuntur. So Oehler has amended for the reading of the Mss. and edd., " tribuuntur."
^Comp. Pusey on Daniel, pp. 178, 179, notes 6, 7, 8, and the passages therein referred to. And lor the whole question of the seventy weeks, and of the LXX. version of Daniel, comp. the same book, Lect. iv. and Note E (ad thousand, 1864). See also pp. 376-381 of the same book; and Faber (as above), pp. 293-297.
3 Or rather, our Lord Himself. See Matt. xi. 13; Luke xvi. 16.
4 Comp. the very obscure passage in i/e Pu. c. vi., towards the end, on which this expression appears to cast some light, 5 Or, " in abscision from."
Nero Caesar,.
Vitellius, Vespasian, in the first year of his empire, subdues the Jews in war; and there are made Hi years, vi months. For he reigned xi years. And thus, in the day of their storming, the Jews fulfilled the Ixx hebdomads predicted in Daniel.
Therefore, when these times also were com- pleted, and the Jews subdued, there after- wards ceased in that place " libations and sacrifices," which thenceforward have not been able to be in that place celebrated; for " the unction," too,"^ was " exterminated " in that place after the passion of Christ. For it had been predicted that the unction should be exterminated in that place; as in the Psalms it is prophesied, "They exterminated my hands and feet." ' And the suffering of this "extermination" was perfected within the times of the Ixx hebdomads, under Tiberius Caesar, in the consulate of Rubellius Geminus and Fufius Geminus, in the month of March, at the times of the passover, on the eighth day before the calends of April, ^ on the first day of unleavened bread, on which they slew the lamb at even, just as had been enjoined by Moses.' Accordingly, all the synagogue of Israel ^/</ slay Him, saying to Pilate, when he was desirous to dismiss Him, " His blood be upon us, and upon our children;"" and, " If thou dismiss him, thou art not a friend of Caesar; " " in order that all things might be fulfilled which had been written of Him.'- CHAP. IX. — OF THE PROPHECIES OF THE BIRTH AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF CHRIST Begin we, therefore, to prove that the birth 6 And, without "unction" — i,e. without a priesthood, the head whereof, or high priest, was always anointed — no " sacri- fices " were lawful.
7 See Ps. xxii. 16 (xxi, 17 in LXX.).
9 Comp. Ex. xii. 6 with Mark xiv. 12, Luke xxii. 7.
'oSee Matt, xxvii. 24, 25, with John xix. 12 and Acts iii. 13.
■2 Comp. Luke xxiv. 44, etc.
CHAP. IX.]
AN ANSWER TO THE JEWS.
i6i of Christ was announced by prophets; as Isaiah {e.g.,) foretells, "Hear ye, house of David; no petty contest have ye with men, since God is proposing a struggle. Therefore God Himself will give you a sign; Behold, the virgin ' shall conceive, and bear a son, and ye shall call his name Emmanuel "= (which is, interpreted, "God with us "3): "butter and honey shall he eat;"'': "since, ere the child learn to call father or mother, he shall receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, in opposition to the king of the Assyrians." ^ Accordingly the Jews say: Let us challenge that prediction of Isaiah, and let us institute a comparison whether, in the case of the Christ who is already come, there be applicable to Him, firstly, the name which Isaiah foretold, and (secondly) the signs of it* which he an- nounced of Him.
Well, then, Isaiah foretells that it behoves Him to be called Emmanuel; and that subse- quently He is to take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, in opposition to the king of the Assyrians. " Now," say they, "that (Christ) of yours, who is come, neither was called by that name, nor engaged in war- fare." But we, on the contrary, have thought they ought to be admonished to recall to mind the context of this passage as well. For sub- joined is withal the interpretation of Em- manuel— " God with us " 7 — in order that you may regard not the sound only of the name, but tjie sense too. For the Hebrew sound, which is Emmanuel, has an interpretation, which is, God with us. Inquire, then, whether this speech, " God with us " (which is Emmanuel), be commonly applied to Christ ever since Christ's light has dawned, and I think you will not deny it. For they who out of Juda- ism believe in Christ, ever since their believ- ing on Him, do, whenever they shall wish to say^ Emmanuel, signify that God is with us: and thus it is agreed that He who was ever predicted as Emmanuel is already come, be- cause that which Emmanuel signifies is come — that is, "God with us." Equally are they led by the sound of the name when they so understand " the power of Damascus," and "the spoils of Samaria," and "the kingdom of the Assyrians," as if they portended Christ » " ^ virgin," Eng. ver.; t\ wopdeVo?, LXX.; " M* virgin," Lowth.
5 See Isa. viii. 4. (All these passages should be read in the LXX.)
* i.e, of the predicted name. [Here compare Against Marcion, Booklll. (vol. vii. Edin. series) Cap. xii. p. 142. Seemy note (i) on Chapter First; and also Kaye, p. xix.]
7 In Isa. viii. 8, 10, compared with vii. 14 in the Eng. ver. and the LXX., and also Lowth, introductory remarks on ch. viii.
«Or, "to call Him." 11 as a warrior; not observing that Scripture premises, "since, ere the child learn to call father or mother, he shall receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, in opposition to the king of the Assyrians. ' ' For the first step is to look at the demonstration of His age, to see whether the age there in- dicated can possibly exhibit the Christ as al- ready a maTi, not to say a general. Forsooth, by His babyish cry the infant would summon men to arms, ancl would give the signal of war not with clarion, but with rattle, and point out the foe, not from His charger's back or from a rampart, but from the back or neck of His suckler and nurse, and thus subdue Damascus and Samaria in place of the breast. (It is another matter if, among you, infants rush out into battle, — oiled first, I suppose, to dry in the sun, and then armed with satchels and rationed on butter, — who are to know how to lance sooner than how to lacerate the bosom!) 5 Certainly, if nature nowhere allows this, — (namely,) to serve as a soldier before developing into manhood, to take " the power of Damascus ' ' before knowing your father, — it follows that the pronouncement is visibly figurative. " But again," say they, " nature suffers not a ' virgin ' to be a parent; and yet the prophet must be believed." And de- servedly so; for he bespoke credit for a thing incredible, by saying that it was to be a sign. " Therefore," he says, " shall a sign be given you. Behold, a virgin shall conceive in womb, and bear a son." But a sign from God, un- less it had consisted in some portentous nov- elty, would not have appeared a sign. In a word, if, when you are anxious to cast any down from (a belief in) this divine prediction, or to convert whoever are simple, you have the audacity to lie, as if the Scripture contained (the announcement), that not " a virgin," but " a young female," was to conceive and bring forth; you are refuted even by this fact, that a daily occurrence — the pregnancy and par- turition of a young female, namely — cannot possibly seem anything of a sign. And the setting before us, then, of a virgin-mother is deservedly believed to be a sign; but not equally so a warrior-infant. For there would not in this case again be involved the question of a sign; but, the sign of a novel birth having been awarded, the next step after the sign is, that there is enunciated a different ensuing ordering'" of the infant, who is to eat " honey and butter." Nor is this, of course, for a sign. It is natural to infancy. But that he 9 See adv. Marc. 1. iii. c. xiii., which, with the preceding chap- ter, should be compared throughout witn the chapter before us. 'oComp. Judg. xiii, 12; Eng. ver., " How shall we order the child?"
AN ANSWER TO THE JEWS.
[chap. IX.
is to receive' "the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria in opposition to the king of the Assyrians," this is a wondrous sign. Keep to the limit of (the infant's) age, and inquire into the sense of the prediction; nay, rather, repay to truth what you are unwilling to credit her with, and the prophecy becomes intelligible by the relation of its fulfilment. Let those Eastern magi be believed, dowering with gold and incense the infancy of Christ as a king;^ and the infant has received " the power of Damascus " without battle and arms. For, besides the fact that it is known to all that the " power " — for that is the " strength " — of the East is wont to abound in gold and odours, certain it is that the divine Scriptures regard "gold " as constituting the " power " also of all other nations; as it says^ through Zechariah: "And Judah keepeth guard at Jerusalem, and shall amass all the vigour of the surrounding peoples, gold and silver."" For of this gift of "gold" David likewise says, " And to Him shall be given of the gold of Arabia; " ^ and again, " The kings of the Arabs and Saba shall bring Him gifts. ' ' ^ For the East, on the one hand, generally held the magi (to be) kings; and Damascus, on the other hand, used formerly to be reckoned to Arabia before it was transferred into Syro- phoenicia on the division of the Syrias: the "power" whereof Christ then "received" in receiving its ensigns, — gold, to wit, and odours. "The spoils," moreover, "of Sa- maria" (He received in receiving) the magi themselves, who, on recognising Him, and honouring Him with gifts, and adoring Him on bended knee as Lord and King, on the evidence of the guiding and indicating star, became "the spoils of Samaria," that is, of idolatry — by believing, namely, on Christ. For (Scripture) denoted idolatry by the name of " Samaria," Samaria being ignominious on the score of idolatry; for she had at that time revolted from God under King Jeroboam. For this, again, is no novelty to the Divine Scriptures, figuratively to use a transference of 7ia7ne grounded on parallelism of crimes. For it' calls your rulers " rulers of Sodom," and your people the " people of Gomorrha," ^ when those cities had already long been ex- tinct.' And elsewhere it says, through a proph- et, to the people of Israel, "Thy father ' Or, " accept."
3 Of course he ought to have said, " they say" 4Zech. xiv. 14, omitting the last clause.
5 Ps. Ixxii. 15 (Ixxi. 15 in LXX.): "Sheba" in Eng. ver.; " Arabia " in the " Great Bible " of 1539; and so the LXX.
*P9. Ixxii. 10, in LXX, and "Great Bible;" " Sheba and Seba," Eng. ver.
7 Strictly, TertuUian ought to have said "they call," having above said " Divine Scriptures; " as above on the preceding page.
oSee Gen. xix. 23-29.
(was ) an Amorite, and thy mother an Hit- tite; " '° of whose race they were not begotten, but (were called their sons) by reason of their consimilarity in impiety, whom of old (God) had called His ozvn sons through Isaiah the prophet: " I have generated and exalted sons."" So, too, Egypt is sometimes un- derstood to mean the whole world '^ in that prophet, on the count of superstition and malediction. '3 So, again, Babylon, in our own John, is a figure of the city Rome, as being equally great and proud of her sway, and triumphant over the saints.''* On this wise, accordingly, (Scripture) '^ entitled the magi also with the appellation of " Samaritans," — " despoiled " (of that) which they had had in common with the Samaritans, as we have said — idolatry in opposition to the Lord. (It"' adds), "in opposition," moreover, "to the king of the Assyrians," — in opposition to the devil, who to this hour thinks himself to be reigning, if he detrudes the saints from the religion of God.
Moreover, this our interpretation will be supported while (we find that) elsewhere as well the Scriptures designate Christ a warrior, as we gather from the names of certain wea- pons, and words of that kind. But by a comparison of the remaining senses the Jews shall be convicted. "Gird thee," says David, "the sword upon the thigh." '^ But what do you read above concerning the Christ? " Blooming in beauty above the sons of men; grace is outpoured in thy lips." '^ But very absurd it is if he was complimenting on the bloom of his beauty and the grace of his lips, one whom he was girding for war with a sword; of whom he proceeds subjunctively to say, " Outstretch and prosper, advance and reign! " And he has added, " because of thy lenity and justice." '' Who will ply the sword without practising the contraries to lenity and justice; that is, guile, and asperity, and in- justice, proper (of course) to the business of battles? See we, then, whether that which has another action be not another sword, — that is, the Divine word of God, doubly sharpened ^ with the two Testaments of the ancient law and the new law; sharpened by the equity of its own wisdom; rendering to each one according to his own action." Law- " Isa. i. 2, as before.
>2 Orbis.
'3 0ehler refers to Isa. xix. i. See, too, Isa, xxx, and xzxi.
'4 See Rev. xvii., etc.
"5 Or we may supply here [" Isaiah "].
'7 Ps. xlv. 3, clause 1 (in LXX. Ps. xliv. 4).
•8 See Ps. xlv. a (xliv. 3 in LXX.).
*'Comp. Ps. Ixii. 12 (Ixi. 13 in LXX.); Rom. ii. 6.
CHAP. IX.]
AN ANSWER TO THE JEWS.
fill, then, it was for the Christ of God to be precinct, in the Psalms, without warlike achievemen; s, with the figurative sword of the word of God; to which sword is congruous the predicated "bloom," together with the "grace of the lips;" with which sword He was then " girt upon the thigh," in the eye of David, when He was announced as about to come to earth in obedience to God the Father's decree. " The greatness of thy right hand, he says, "shall conduct thee"' — the virtue to wit, of the spiritual grace from which the recognition of Christ is de- duced. "Thine arrows," he says, "are sharp,"- — God's everywhere-flying precepts (arrows) threatening the exposure ^ of every heart, and carrying compunction and trans- fixion to each conscience: " peoples shall fall beneath thee,"'* — of course, in adoration. Thus mighty in war and weapon-bearing is Christ; thus will He "receive the spoils," not of " Samaria " alone, but of all nations as well. Acknovdedge that His " spoils " are figurative whose weapons you have learnt to be allegorical. And thus, so far, the Christ who is come was not a warrior, because He was not predicted as such by Isaiah.
"But if the Christ," say they, "who is believed to be coming is not called Jesus, why is he who is come called Jesus Christ? " Well, each name will meet in the Christ of God, in whom is found likewise the appella- tion s Jesus. Learn the habitual character of your error. In the course of the appointing of a successor to Moses, Oshea^the son of Nun 7 is certainly transferred from his pris- tine name, and begins to be called Jesus.* Certainly, you say. This we first assert to have been a figure of the future. For, be- cause Jesus Christ was to introduce the second people (which is composed of us na- tions, lingering deserted in the world ' afore- time) into the land of promise, " flowing with milk and honey " '° (that is, into the posses- sion of eternal life, than which nought is sweeter); and this had to come about, not through Moses (that is, not through the Law's •See Ps. xlv. =; (xliv, 6 in LXX.).
3 Traductionem (comp. Heb. iv. 13).
5 I can find no authority for " appellatus " as a substantive, but such forms are familiar with TertuUian. Or perhaps we may ren- der: " in that He is found to have been likewise called Jesus."
7 Nave; Nav^ in LXX.
SJehoshua, Joshua, Jeshua, Jesus, are all forms of the same name. But the change from Oshea or Hoshea to Jehoshua ap- pears to have been made when he was sent to spy the land. See Num. xiii. 16 (17 in LXX., who call it a i-.v;-naming).
9 If Oehler's "in saeculo desertse ' is to be retained, this ap- pears to be the construction. But this passage, like others above noted, is but a reproduction of parts of the third book in answer to Marcion; and there the reading is "in saeculi desertis" = " in the desert places of the world," or " of heathendom." "'See Ex. iii. 8, and the references there.