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| Of the Birth of Our Saviour, Whereby the Word Was Made Flesh; And of the Dispersion of the Jews Among All Nations, as Had Been Prophesied.
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Chapter 46.—Of the Birth of Our
Saviour, Whereby the Word Was Made Flesh; And of the Dispersion of
the Jews Among All Nations, as Had Been Prophesied.
While Herod, therefore, reigned in
Judea, and Cæsar Augustus was emperor at Rome, the state of the
republic being already changed, and the world being set at peace by
him, Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judah, man manifest out of a
human virgin, God hidden out of God the Father. For so had the
prophet foretold: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb,
and bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,
which, being interpreted, is, God with us.”1224
He did many miracles that He
might commend God in Himself, some of which, even as many as seemed
sufficient to proclaim Him, are contained in the evangelic
Scripture. The first of these is, that He was so wonderfully
born, and the last, that with His body raised up again from the
dead He ascended into heaven. But the Jews who slew Him, and
would not believe in Him, because it behoved Him to die and rise
again, were yet more miserably wasted by the Romans, and utterly
rooted out from their kingdom, where aliens had already ruled over
them, and were dispersed through the lands (so that indeed there is
no place where they are not), and are thus by their own Scriptures
a testimony to us that we have not forged the prophecies about
Christ. And very many of them, considering this, even before His
passion, but chiefly after His resurrection, believed on Him, of
whom it was predicted, “Though the number of the children of
Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved.”1225
But the
rest are blinded, of whom it was predicted, “Let their table be
made before them a trap, and a retribution, and a stumbling-block.
Let their eyes be darkened lest they see, and bow down their back
alway.”1226
| 1226 Ps. lxix. 22,
23; Rom. xi. 9, 10. |
Therefore, when they do not believe our Scriptures, their own,
which they blindly read, are fulfilled in them, lest perchance any
one should say that the Christians have forged these prophecies
about Christ which are quoted under the name of the sibyl, or of
others, if such there be, who do not belong to the Jewish people.
For us, indeed, those suffice which are quoted from the books of
our enemies, to whom we make our acknowledgment, on account of this
testimony which, in spite of themselves, they contribute by their
possession of these books, while they themselves are dispersed
among all nations, wherever the Church of Christ is spread
abroad. For a prophecy about this thing was sent before in the
Psalms, which they also read, where it is written, “My God, His
mercy shall prevent me. My God hath shown me concerning mine
enemies, that Thou shalt not slay them, lest they should at last
forget Thy law: disperse them in Thy might.”1227
Therefore God has shown the
Church in her enemies the Jews the grace of His compassion, since,
as saith the apostle, “their offence is the salvation of the
Gentiles.”1228
And
therefore He has not slain them, that is, He has not let the
knowledge that they are Jews be lost in them, although they have
been conquered by the Romans, lest they should forget the law of
God, and their testimony should be of no avail in this matter of
which we treat. But it was not enough that he should say, “Slay
them not, lest they should at last forget Thy law,” unless he had
also added, “Disperse them;” because if they had only been in
their own land with that testimony of the Scriptures, and not every
where, certainly the Church which is everywhere could not have had
them as witnesses among all nations to the prophecies which were
sent before concerning Christ.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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