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While Herod, therefore, reigned in Judea, and Caesar 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." 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." 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."
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."
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." 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.
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