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THE EXTANT WORKS AND FRAGMENTS
OF HIPPOLYTUS
PART II. B.
EXPOSITORY TREATISE AGAINST THE JEWS
EXPOSITORY TREATISE AGAINST THE JEWS.
1. Now, then, incline thine ear to me, and hear my words, and give heed,
thou Jew. Many a time dost thou boast thyself, in that thou didst condemn
Jesus of Nazareth to death, and didst give Him vinegar and gall to drink;
and thou dost vaunt thyself because of this. Come therefore, and let us
consider together whether perchance thou dost not boast unrighteously,
O Israel, (and) whether that small portion of vinegar and gall has not
brought down this fearful threatening upon thee, (and) whether this is
not the cause of thy present condition involved in these myriad troubles.
2.
Let him then be introduced before us who speaketh by the Holy Spirit,
and saith truth--David
the
son of Jesse. He, singing a certain strain with
prophetic reference to the true Christ, celebrated our God by the Holy
Spirit, (and) declared clearly all that befell Him by the hands of the
Jews in His passion; in which (strain) the Christ who humbled Himself and
took unto Himself the form of the servant Adam, calls upon God the Father
in heaven as it were in our person, and speaks thus in the sixty-ninth
Psalm: "Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I
am sunk in the mire of the abyss," that is to say, in the corruption
of Hades, on account of the transgression in paradise; and "there
is no substance," that is, help. "My eyes failed while I hoped
(or, from my hoping) upon my God; when will He come and save me?"(1)
3.
Then, in what next follows, Christ speaks, as it were, in His own person: "Then
I restored that," says He, "which I took not away;" that
is, on account of the sin of Adam I endured the death which was not mine
by sinning. "For, O God, Thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins
are not hid from Thee," that is, "for I did not sin," as
He means it; and for this reason (it is added), "Let not them be ashamed
who want to see" my resurrection on the third day, to wit, the apostles. "Because
for Thy sake," that is, for the sake of obeying Thee, "I have
borne reproach," namely the cross, when "they covered my face
with shame," that is to say, the Jews; when "I became a stranger
unto my brethren after the flesh, and an alien unto my mother's children," meaning
(by the mother) the synagogue. "For the zeal of Thine house, Father,
hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen
on me," and of them that sacrificed to idols. Wherefore "they
that sit in the gate spoke against me," for they crucified me without
the gate. "And they that drink sang against me," that is, (they
who drink wine) at the feast of the passover. "But as for me, in my
prayer unto Thee, O Lord, I said, Father, forgive them," namely the
Gentiles, because it is the time for favour with Gentiles. "Let not
then the hurricane (of temptations) overwhelm me, neither let the deep
(that is, Hades) swallow me up: for Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell
(Hades); neither let the pit shut her mouth upon me,"(1) that is,
the sepulchre. "By reason of mine enemies, deliver me," that
the Jews may not boast, saying, Let us consume him.
4.
Now Christ prayed all this economically(2) as man; being, however, true
God. But, as I
have already
said, it was the "form of the servant"(3)
that spake and suffered these things. Wherefore He added, "My soul
looked for reproach and trouble," that is, I suffered of my own will,
(and) not by any compulsion. Yet "I waited for one to mourn with me,
and there was none," for all my disciples forsook me and fled; and
for a "comforter, and I found none."
5.
Listen with understanding, O Jew, to what the Christ says: "They
gave me gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." And
these things He did indeed endure from you. Hear the Holy Ghost tell you
also what return He made to you for that little portion of vinegar. For
the prophet says, as in the person of God, "Let their table become
a snare and retribution." Of what retribution does He speak? Manifestly,
of the misery which has now got hold of thee.
6.
And then hear what follows: "Let their eyes be darkened, that
they see not." And surely ye have been darkened in the eyes of your
soul with a darkness utter and everlasting. For now that the true light
has arisen, ye wander as in the night, and stumble on places with no roads,
and fall headlong, as having forsaken the way that saith, "I am the
way."(4) Furthermore, hear this yet more serious word: "And their
back do thou bend always;" that means, in order that they may be slaves
to the nations, not four hundred and thirty years as in Egypt, nor seventy
as in Babylon, but bend them to servitude, he says, "always." In
fine, then, how dost thou indulge vain hopes, expecting to be delivered
from the misery which holdeth thee? For that is somewhat strange. And not
unjustly has he imprecated this blindness of eyes upon thee. But because
thou didst cover the eyes of Christ, (and(5)) thus thou didst beat Him,
for this reason, too, bend thou thy back for servitude always. And whereas
thou didst pour out His blood in indignation, hear what thy recompense
shall be: "Pour out Thine indignation upon them, and let Thy wrathful
anger take hold of them;" and, "Let their habitation be desolate," to
wit, their celebrated temple.
7.
But why, O prophet, tell us, and for what reason, was the temple made
desolate? Was it on
account
of that ancient fabrication of the calf? Was
it on account of the idolatry of the people? Was it for the blood of the
prophets? Was it for the adultery and fornication of Israel? By no means,
he says; for in all these transgressions they always found pardon open
to them, and benignity; but it was because they killed the Son of their
Benefactor, for He is coeternal with the Father. Whence He saith, "Father,
let their temple be made desolate;(6) for they have persecuted Him whom
Thou didst of Thine own will smite for the salvation of the world;" that
is, they have persecuted me with a violent and unjust death, "and
they have added to the pain of my wounds." In former time, as the
Lover of man, I had pain on account of the straying of the Gentiles; but
to this pain they have added another, by going also themselves astray.
Wherefore "add iniquity to their iniquity, and tribulation to tribulation,
and let them not enter into Thy righteousness," that is, into Thy
kingdom; but "let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and
not be written with the righteous," that is, with their holy fathers
and patriarchs.
8.
What sayest thou to this, O Jew? It is neither Matthew nor Paul that
saith these things,
but David,
thine anointed, who awards and declares
these terrible sentences on account of Christ. And like the great Job,
addressing you who speak against the righteous and true, he says, "Thou
didst barter the Christ like a slave, thou didst go to Him like a robber
in the garden."
9.
I produce now the prophecy of Solomon, which speaketh of Christ, and
announces clearly
and perspicuously
things concerning the Jews; and those
which not only are befalling them at the present time, but those, too,
which shall befall them in the future age, on account of the contumacy
and audacity which they exhibited toward the Prince of Life; for the prophet
says, "The ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright," that
is, about Christ, "Let us lie in wait for the righteous, because he
is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings and words,
and upbraideth us with our offending the law, and professeth to have knowledge
of God; and he calleth himself the Child of God."(7) And then he says, "He
is grievous to us even to behold; for his life is not like other men's,
and his ways are of another fashion. We are esteemed of him as counterfeits,
and he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness, and pronounceth the
end of the just to be blessed."(1) And again, listen to this, O Jew!
None of the righteous or prophets called himself the Son of God. And therefore,
as in the person of the Jews, solomon speaks again of this righteous one,
who is Christ, thus: "He was made to reprove our thoughts, and he
maketh his boast that God is his Father. Let us see, then, if his words
be true, and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him; for if the
just man be the Son of God, He will help him, and deliver him from the
hand of his enemies. Let us condemn him with a shameful death, for by his
own saying he shall be respected."(2)
10.
And again David, in the Psalms, says with respect to the future age, "Then
shall He" (namely Christ) "speak unto them in His wrath, and
vex them in His sore displeasure."(3) And again Solomon says concerning
Christ and the Jews, that "when the righteous shall stand in great
boldness before the face of such as have afflicted Him, and made no account
of His words, when they see it they shall be troubled with terrible fear,
and shall be amazed at the strangeness of His salvation; and they, repenting
and groaning for anguish of spirit, shall say within themselves, This is
He whom we had sometimes in derision and a proverb of reproach; we fools
accounted His life madness, and His end to he without honour. How is He
numbered among the children of God, and His lot is among the saints? Therefore
have we erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness bath
not shined unto us, and the sun of righteousness rose not on us. We wearied
ourselves in the way of wickedness and destruction; we have gone through
deserts where there lay no way: but as for the way of the Lord, we have
not known it. What hath our pride profited us? all those things are passed
away like a shadow."(4)
THE CONCLUSION IS WANTING.(5)
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