Translation from Patrologia Latina 209, Column 421ff.
PROLOGUE
Since the Scripture relates that there was a threefold cause of the first perdition—namely avarice, vainglory, and gluttony—from these three vices the entire succession of descendants, born from corrupted seed, took the beginning of sinning. So that from these, as from efficient causes, every occasion of human frailty proceeded, as if to be propagated originally; and in the manner of water always tending toward lower places, with the reins of free will loosened, it came to this calamity of our captivity: that man, not remembering in whose image he was made, subjected himself to the worship of idols, and adored what was made rather than Him who made it.
Wherefore the Divine Judge, weighing the merits of the good and examining the faults of the reprobate, with the flooding deluge of waters, destroyed what was to be destroyed; and maintaining the practice of a good surgeon, cut away the dead flesh lest the healthy part be infected, and preserved what was alive. However, as a long course of time passed, very many who knew the fatness of their former iniquity, with wickedness now grown old, incurred the danger of apostasy; but a few remained in the worship of the one God. From these came forth the patriarchs and the sons of the patriarchs, the holy root, the chosen people, to whom the law was given for a time, until there should come the Holy of Holies, who making both one, would both absolve the transgression of the first-formed man and open the entrance to the heavenly kingdom for believers.
The Church, partaker of His mercy, awaits the Bridegroom coming to the general wedding feast; but the Synagogue, still having a veil before its eyes, like the Britons awaiting Arcturus, awaits His first coming. Hence I greatly marvel at the shameless hardness of the Jews and their obstinate stubbornness, who by some hidden judgment of God are so pertinacious in their old perfidy that if anyone should repel their infidelity with a certain fork, as it were, he would nevertheless incur their wrath; as if their inseparable accident of infidelity could find no other seat elsewhere.
O therefore wonderful dispensation of the Creator! O strict vengeance of the Judge! Who thus rejected the tabernacle, who thus excluded Israel His firstborn; who thus destroyed those He had built, who thus uprooted those He had planted! Who indeed not only do not acquiesce in the truth of the new grace, but even, like retrograde planets, attempt to oppose the firmament of our faith, and dispute with Christians the authority drawn from the Pentateuch.
Concerning this, consulting their ignorance, I, Gautier, native of the town called Insula in the diocese of Tournai, and Baldwin, canon of the Church of Valenciennes at Bronne, have written a little book against the Jews in dialogue form, in which from the books of the prophets, having compiled certain flowers, we have woven diverse kinds of defenses by which we might refute their lying tongue. For since the oracles of the prophets categorize scarcely anything else than the coming of Christ, His passion, and resurrection, yet because some speak less clearly and somewhat enigmatically, we have collected from them certain very clear prophecies by which, even if that subjected she-ass should wish, she cannot contradict.
BALD. But before we devote ourselves to the text, let us distinguish by chapters in what things they disagree with us.
GUALT. I approve what you say; and indeed I think that should be set forth first, which they assert: that the Messiah has not yet come, and that when He comes, He will not be born of a virgin but of a corrupted woman.
B. It is so, I say; they also affirm that He Himself will not be God but a pure man, and they assert that He will not suffer nor rise again. Moreover, I remember that I disputed the day before yesterday with one of them whom they had appointed as their respondent and advocate against me, and I compelled him to confess that there would be two Messiahs, one who had already come, and another who was to come.
G. Good heavens! What a new kind of mockery is this? This is similar to what is asserted: namely that the sin of the transgressor Adam brought no evil to himself or to his posterity except the occasion of dying, and that none on account of this guilt descended to hell to be damned, especially from Judaism.
B. Add this also to the aforementioned: that they glory that they alone are the people of God, excluding the calling of the Gentiles.
G. Indeed, and their reprobation, and if anything my small ability suggests to you, I shall designate by the office of the pen.
B. And I, bearing the persona of the Jews in certain matters, shall object to what I see can be opposed.
G. You have spoken wisely, I say; but now let us do what is at hand, and first let us unfold the oracle of Isaiah, who more clearly than the others preached the coming of Christ.
BOOK ONE
I. G. Isaiah at the beginning of his book openly intimates both the blindness of the Jews and the illumination of the Gentiles, for he says: “I have nourished and exalted sons, but they have despised me” (Isa. 1:2). But because this can be understood about both the Gentiles and the Jews (for God nourished and exalted both), the Gentiles through the natural law and through their philosophers, the Jews moreover through the written law and through Moses and the prophets; yet both despised God, the Gentiles by worshiping idols, the Jews by crucifying the Lord of glory—but lest they object that this was said only about the Gentiles, let us hear what follows: “The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master’s crib; but Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood” (Isa. 1:3).
B. Behold, he clearly demonstrates about whom the previous statement was made, when he says: “Israel has not known me.”
G. But let them tell us who is that Israel whom they assert their fathers have not known.
B. Perhaps they will say that these things were said about their fathers who were in Egypt, or about those who worshiped the golden calf in the desert, or about others who sinned in various ways.
G. But if they respond thus, let them hear how Isaiah refutes them, saying: “If the Lord of hosts had not left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom, and we would have been made similar to Gomorrah” (Isa. 1:9). Therefore, since a seed was left to them, which the Apostle interprets as Christ, saying “To Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. He does not say ‘and to seeds’ as of many, but as of one, ‘and to thy seed,’ which is Christ” (Gal. 3:16)—it is clearly proven that these things were said about those from whom Christ was to be born according to the flesh.
B. But what if they should say that by “seed” the prophet meant not Christ but the children who remained after the transmigration of Babylon?
G. If they wish to understand it thus, let them say what sin their fathers committed before the Babylonian captivity, for which God so threatened them that, unless He had left them a seed, they would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.
B. I think they will say that it was on account of the worship of idols, for which the Lord handed them over to their enemies.
G. But if it was on account of idolatry that God so threatened them, why after their return from Babylon (when they are not found to have worshiped idols anymore) did worse things happen to them than before? For after Babylon they were not only led into captivity but also scattered throughout the whole world; their city was not only captured but also destroyed to the ground; the temple was not only desecrated but also burned with fire; and finally they themselves were not only afflicted with various torments but also deprived of the light of truth.
Therefore, if after Babylon they did not worship idols, and yet suffered worse things than before, it is clearly proven that God did not threaten them on account of past idolatry, but on account of future infidelity, by which they were to deny and crucify the Savior of the world.
II. G. But let us proceed to what follows. The same prophet says: “Wash yourselves, be clean, remove the evil of your thoughts from my eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek judgment, help the oppressed, judge for the orphan, defend the widow. And then come and accuse me, says the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow; and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isa. 1:16-18).
B. In these words, as I see, two things are clearly shown: first, that sins can be cleansed by washing; second, that no one is to be despaired of, however grave his sins may be.
G. You have well perceived the sense of the prophet. But let the Jews tell us by what washing they think their sins can be cleansed, since they have neither baptism, through which alone, according to the Savior’s teaching, one can enter the kingdom of God (as He says: “Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” [John 3:5]); nor do they have penance, which they cannot have without faith in the Mediator between God and men.
B. Perhaps they will say that they have the washing of circumcision.
G. But circumcision was not given for the remission of sins, but as a sign of the covenant between God and Abraham, as is clearly shown when God said to Abraham: “This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your seed after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised” (Gen. 17:10). Moreover, if circumcision could cleanse from sins, why would the prophet exhort them to another washing, saying “Wash yourselves, be clean”?
Furthermore, the Apostle clearly demonstrates that circumcision does not justify when he says: “If you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing” (Gal. 5:2). And again: “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (Gal. 6:15).
III. G. The same prophet continues: “How has the faithful city become a harlot! She was full of judgment, justice dwelt in her, but now murderers” (Isa. 1:21).
B. Here the prophet clearly foretells the future infidelity of the Jews, comparing Jerusalem to a harlot who, having abandoned her legitimate husband (that is, God), gave herself to adulterers (that is, to demons).
G. You have rightly interpreted. But let them tell us when Jerusalem became a harlot. Was it not when she denied Christ and chose Barabbas the robber? Was it not when she cried out: “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15)? Was it not when she said: “His blood be upon us and upon our children” (Matt. 27:25)?
B. Clearly this is so. But what does the prophet mean when he says “murderers”?
G. Who else can be understood by “murderers” except those who killed the Author of life? As Peter says to them: “You denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you; but the Author of life you killed” (Acts 3:14-15).
IV. G. Let us see what follows. The prophet says: “Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water” (Isa. 1:22).
B. This seems to me to signify that their wisdom, which was once pure and precious like silver, became corrupted and worthless; and their spiritual joy, which is signified by wine, was diluted with carnal understanding, which is represented by water.
G. You have grasped the spiritual sense well. For before the coming of Christ, while they kept the law given through Moses, their wisdom was like silver and their observance like unmixed wine. But after they rejected Christ, their wisdom became dross because they understood the Scriptures carnally, not spiritually; and their observance became mixed with water because they observed the letter that kills, not the spirit that gives life.
The Apostle confirms this when he says of them: “But their minds were hardened. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because in Christ it is made void” (2 Cor. 3:14).
V. G. The prophet proceeds: “Therefore says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah, I will comfort myself over my adversaries, and I will be avenged of my enemies” (Isa. 1:24).
B. Who are these adversaries and enemies of God except the unfaithful Jews, who not only refused to believe in Christ but also persecuted His disciples?
G. None other. And notice how the Lord calls them not His sons or His people, as He used to call them, but His adversaries and enemies. For by their unbelief and by the crucifixion of the Lord they made themselves God’s enemies, as the Apostle says: “The carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom. 8:7).
But let them tell us how God was avenged of them. Was it not when He destroyed their city and temple? Was it not when He scattered them throughout the whole world? Was it not when He made them serve their enemies? All these things were foretold by Moses when he said: “The Lord will bring upon you a nation from afar… a nation whose language you shall not understand, a fierce nation, that will not regard the person of the old man, nor show favor to the child… And you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord shall send upon you” (Deut. 28:49-50, 48).
VI. G. Let us continue with the text. The prophet says: “And I will turn my hand to you, and I will purge away your dross as with lye, and I will remove all your tin” (Isa. 1:25).
B. What does this mean?
G. By “turning His hand,” God signifies His change of dispensation. For in the Old Testament, He dealt with them through figures and shadows; but in the New Testament, He turned to them with manifest truth. By “purging away the dross,” He means removing their carnal understanding and false interpretations of the Scriptures. By “removing the tin,” He indicates taking away all hypocrisy and pretense of righteousness.
This purging and removing was done through the preaching of the Apostles, who, filled with the Holy Spirit, explained to them the true meaning of the Scriptures and showed them that all things written in the law and the prophets were fulfilled in Christ.
B. But if God purged away their dross, why do they still remain in their unbelief?
G. Not all remained in unbelief. Many thousands of Jews believed in Christ, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews who have believed” (Acts 21:20). These were purged of their dross. But those who remained in their obstinacy and refused to believe, these proved that they were not gold mixed with dross, but pure dross; not silver mixed with tin, but pure tin.
Therefore the prophet rightly adds: “And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as from the beginning; after this you shall be called the city of the just, a faithful city” (Isa. 1:26). For when the Apostles, who are the true judges and counselors, preached the truth to them, some believed and became the city of the just and the faithful city—that is, the Church. But those who refused to believe remained in their dross and tin.
VII. G. But let us see what the prophet threatens to the unbelieving. He says: “Zion shall be redeemed in judgment, and they shall bring her back in justice. And he shall destroy the wicked and the sinners together, and they that have forsaken the Lord shall be consumed” (Isa. 1:27-28).
B. Here the distinction between believers and unbelievers is clearly shown. For he says that Zion (that is, the Church) shall be redeemed in judgment and brought back in justice; but the wicked and sinners who have forsaken the Lord shall be consumed.
G. You understand correctly. For Zion—that is, the congregation of believers—was redeemed in judgment when Christ, the righteous Judge, by His death redeemed her from the power of the devil; and she was brought back in justice when, through faith in Christ and the reception of the Holy Spirit, she was restored to the justice which Adam lost by transgression.
But the wicked and sinners—that is, the unbelieving Jews—were destroyed together when their city and temple were demolished, and they were scattered throughout the world. And they who forsook the Lord (who is Christ) were consumed, not indeed in body immediately, but in spirit, being deprived of all spiritual grace and understanding of the Scriptures.
VIII. G. The prophet continues: “For you shall be confounded for the idols to which you have sacrificed, and you shall be ashamed of the gardens which you have chosen” (Isa. 1:29).
B. But the Jews did not worship idols after the Babylonian captivity. How then can this be understood of them?
G. Although they did not worship graven images after Babylon, they worshiped an idol in their heart when they preferred earthly things to heavenly, temporal to eternal, the letter to the spirit. For whatever is loved more than God is an idol, as the Apostle says: “Covetousness is the worship of idols” (Col. 3:5).
Moreover, the “gardens which they chose” signify their own righteousness which they established, not submitting themselves to the righteousness of God, as the Apostle says of them: “For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:3).
Therefore they shall be confounded and ashamed when, on the day of judgment, they shall see that their righteousness, which they thought was pleasing to God, was nothing but filthy rags before Him, as Isaiah himself says elsewhere: “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6).
IX. G. Let us see what else the prophet says. He continues: “For you shall be as an oak when the leaves fall off, and as a garden without water. And your strength shall be as the ashes of tow, and your work as a spark; and both shall burn together, and there shall be none to quench it” (Isa. 1:30-31).
B. This seems to me a terrible threat.
G. Indeed it is. For by the oak whose leaves fall off, he signifies the Jewish Synagogue which, having lost the beauty of spiritual understanding (which is represented by leaves), remained dry and sterile. By the garden without water, he indicates their lack of the grace of the Holy Spirit, who is symbolized by water, as the Savior says: “If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink… This he said of the Spirit” (John 7:37-39).
By “your strength shall be as ashes of tow,” he shows that all their strength and confidence, which they placed in their own observances and traditions, shall be consumed as quickly as tow burns to ashes. By “your work as a spark,” he indicates that their works, which they thought meritorious, shall be as transient and powerless as a spark.
And both—that is, their false confidence and their vain works—shall burn together in the fire of divine judgment, and there shall be none to quench it, because they refused to believe in Christ, who alone could have delivered them from eternal fire.
X. G. Now let us come to the second chapter of Isaiah, where the vocation of the Gentiles and the reprobation of the Jews are more clearly shown. The prophet says: “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it” (Isa. 2:1-2).
B. Here the prophet clearly foretells the establishment of the Church and the conversion of the Gentiles.
G. Exactly so. For by “the mountain of the house of the Lord,” he means the Church, which is called a mountain because of its eminence and stability, and the house of the Lord because God dwells in it. This mountain was prepared “on the top of mountains”—that is, in the most eminent place—when Christ established His Church with the Apostles as its foundation.
It was “exalted above the hills” when the Church was shown to surpass all earthly powers and kingdoms. And “all nations flowed to it” when the Gentiles, from all parts of the world, came to the faith of Christ and were baptized.
Let the Jews tell us when this was fulfilled. Was it not after the coming of Christ? For before His coming, the nations did not flow to Jerusalem to learn the law of God; but after His resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit, innumerable multitudes from all nations came to the faith and were added to the Church.
SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS FROM BOOK II
On the Seventy Weeks Prophecy of Daniel (Chapter X)
B. Now, if it please you, let us unfold the oracles of Daniel.
G. It pleases me; for who has expressed the coming and passion of the Savior more clearly than he? For he says: “I was watching in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man came, and he came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him before Him. And to him was given dominion and a kingdom; and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not be taken away, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:13-14).
And again: “But the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; whose kingdom is everlasting, and all kings shall serve and obey him” (Dan. 7:27).
And with certain things interposed, he adds: “Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may receive an end, and iniquity may be blotted out, and everlasting justice may be brought in, and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled, and the Holy of Holies may be anointed” (Dan. 9:24).
By these things, Baldwin, either it must be admitted that these things were not predicted concerning the Messiah, or that when he comes, he will necessarily be God, as the Stoics must acknowledge.
B. How so, I ask?
G. Since it is established that God is holy, if the Messiah is the Holy of Holies, either he himself will be God, or it will be proven that there is someone holier than God.
B. You argue very plausibly, I think. Consider what follows: “And after sixty-two weeks the Christ shall be killed, and the people that shall deny him shall not be his” (Dan. 9:26). But if anyone searches the following passages inwardly, he will find them full of heavenly savor. But because we ought not give what is holy to dogs (Matt. 7:6), let it suffice to have read Daniel thus far, and let us prepare ourselves to review the prophecies of the twelve prophets.
On the Calling of the Gentiles and Rejection of the Jews (Chapter XI-XIV)
XI. And since Hosea occurs first to be read, let us hear what he said about the rejection of the Jews and the despoiling of hell: “Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. According to their multitude, so have they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame. They shall eat the sins of my people” (Hos. 4:6-8).
And elsewhere: “Come, let us return to the Lord, for he has taken us and will save us; he has struck us and will heal us. He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up” (Hos. 6:1-2).
XIV. Obadiah also clearly revealed the calling of the Gentiles: “As you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all nations drink continually, and in Mount Zion there shall be salvation, and it shall be holy” (Obad. 1:16-17).
B. How should we pursue these in order, so we ought to explain each individually in order?
G. It would be long and difficult if we wished to explain everything fully. For prolixity of work often generates weariness in the ears of the listener. Hence what the prophetic voice means mystically should be left to the diligence of the reader. Concerning Jonah, however, we pass over because nothing sounds in the letter which we might oppose to the Jews.
XV. Micah indeed says: “Behold, the Lord will come forth from his holy place, and will descend and tread upon the high places of the earth” (Mic. 1:3).
Likewise: “Then they shall cry to the Lord, and he will not hear them; he will hide his face from them” (Mic. 3:4).
Again: “In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and exalted above all hills” (Mic. 4:1).
SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS FROM BOOK III
Prologue to Book III: Invocation of the Trinity
XXIV. Indeed, the diligent reader will be able to excerpt many other testimonies of the Lord’s nativity, passion, and resurrection from the volumes of the Old Testament. But because our purpose is to investigate the Trinity—who is God—among the ancient ceremonies of the Synagogue, we terminate the work of this second book, and prepare the affection of our heart for the expense of so great a matter.
B. So be it, so that, just as Plato says in the Timaeus, we may first invoke divine aid, without which nothing at all is valid, nothing fruitful, nothing perfect.
G. Good is your counsel, man of God, and good and beautiful is what you have spoken. And although “praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner” (Sir. 15:9), yet because we are to be instructed concerning the Trinity, at the beginning—that is, at the head of the third book—let us break forth in praise of the triune God.
BOOK THREE: On the Trinity
I. “How good is the God of Israel!” (Ps. 73:1) How good are your ancient works which you showed to our fathers, leading them out from the land of servitude! But how good, indeed how excellent are your newest works, which you have worked in the midst of the earth (Ps. 74:12), snatching us from the prison of death, not in the rod of Moses, but in your outstretched arm, so that the greater this redemption was than the former, the greater might be the minister of redemption!
For there God through a man—not man himself, but the body of a man—liberated from servitude; here God snatched body and soul—that is, the whole man—from the perpetual chains of death. There through wood and water; here through wood, water, and blood. There a servant freed a fellow servant; here the Lord freed the servant. There the servant was raised up as leader; here the leader and Lord was humbled as a servant.
O wonderful condescension and worthy marvel! The Just is condemned that the unjust may be saved; the Lord is punished and the servant is absolved. He has mercy on the servant who does not spare the Son. O mild cruelty! O cruel mercy! He imprisons the more beloved who releases the less beloved—indeed, nearly equally beloved. For what is dearer than this greater charity?
For although the Truth says: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13), nevertheless there is greater charity: that one lay down his life for his enemies. But when we were enemies of God, he laid down his life for us. With what great bowels of mercy did he love us, who, that he might love us, held his own soul in hatred!
II. Invocation of the Trinity
II. O therefore Supreme Good, one Principle, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! One loving him who is from himself, and one loving him from whom he is, and the very love itself—and yet one: loving, beloved, love! Not three essences, but three persons, whom, although personal property diversifies, nevertheless the equality of the same essence unites: one unbegotten, one begotten, one proceeding; one deity, one beatitude, one eternity: “From whom all things, through whom all things, in whom all things.”
Grant us, we beseech, to find what we seek, to attain what we investigate. Grant that, having found these things, we may direct the conspicuous eyes of our mind toward you. Grant us to illuminate the fountain of good; open the treasures of your wisdom, fill the vessels of our hearts, which, even if empty of good works, nevertheless have been refreshed with the wine and oil of their faith.
Strengthen the footstep of our pen, so that what the most holy Fathers perceived concerning the Trinity (who is God) before the time of revealed grace, we may bring forth into the light, so that we do not fall into error. Thus may we store up the javelins of the proud Synagogue, yet may we beware of lucre, through him who, born of the Virgin, destroyed heretical depravity. Amen.
III. A Disputation with a Jewish Master on “Let Us Make Man”
III. There is among us at Castellion a certain Jew whom the Hebrews of all the neighboring cities and towns call, by antonomasia, “the Master.” When therefore the day before yesterday I was about to dispute with him, having armed myself with the sign of the cross, I descended confidently to the assembly of the wicked, and conferred many things with them concerning the observance of legal commandments.
But when a great part of the day had already been consumed in lengthy contentions, finally a sermon was held concerning their Messiah. Disputing about this for a long time, we finally made mention of the condition of the first man; whence immediately, taking occasion, I transferred the matter of the disputation to the Trinity, and began from this point: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26).
“Who,” I asked, “is speaking and to whom?”
“God,” he said, “to the angels, wishing to make man by their counsel.”
Hearing this, I burst into laughter, and before I could pose a second question, I added with a laugh: “Tell me, I ask, was man made in the image of the Creator or of the angels?”
“Of the Creator,” he said.
“What then,” I said, “is the meaning of what follows: ‘In our image’? For since man was made in the image of God alone, even if he had said to the angels ‘Let us make,’ nevertheless considering the singularity of his own person, he ought to have said ‘In my image,’ not ‘our image.’ For ‘our’ is a pronoun designating not one but multiple persons; hence it is intrinsic to the first person; but extrinsic to the third.”
IV. Exposition of “Let Us Make Man”
IV. B. I ask you that we dwell longer on this passage, and in few words explain what should be judged concerning it.
G. We cannot at all, except insofar as the Holy Spirit will give us to speak, be freed from these matters. Moreover, I fear that if I undertake so great a burden, pressed by the weight of the work, I shall succumb to the labor and leave the things attempted in vain. But since it is written: “Open your mouth and I will fill it” (Ps. 81:10), although we distrust our own strength, nevertheless following the footsteps of those who have written on this subject, we shall explain the aforementioned verse in a few words:
“Let us make man in our image and likeness.”
The Father speaks to the Son, saying: “Let us make man.” Therefore he says “Let us make” to the Son, because “all things were made through him” (John 1:3). For the Father is the creator of all things through the Son, and the Son is the co-worker of all things, who, “when he prepared the mountains, I was present with him, arranging all things” (Prov. 8:27).
“Let us make”—to the Son. But surely also to the Holy Spirit? Truly also to the Holy Spirit. For if he were speaking only to the Son: “Let us make man in our image,” man would have been made only in the image of the Father and Son. But it is established that man was made in the image of the Trinity; therefore the Father spoke to his Son and to the Holy Spirit: “Let us make man in our image and likeness.”
In this, indeed, it must be noted that he said both “Let us make” in the plural and “our” [in the plural]; for both were said in the plural, “Let us make” and “our.” And this should not be taken except as relative terms.
For not, as Augustine says, that gods might make or in the image of gods; but that the Father and Son and Holy Spirit might make. Moreover, if he had said to the angels “Let us make,” it would indeed seem probable that man was also made in the image of the angels, and not only God the creator, but also the angels existed as makers of man and, as it were, co-creators.
For example: You, since you are a priest and quite learned, if you were to speak to some layman entirely ignorant of letters and like a brute animal, saying “Come, brother, let us celebrate Mass, let us sing Vespers,” or something similar—in which it would be established that you alone and not he is capable—would you not signify that he to whom you said these things could become your helper and participant in your ministry or office?
V. B. Certainly it would be so. But now let us pass on to the following matters; for a great way remains for us.
NOTES ON THE TRANSLATION
This is a medieval anti-Jewish polemic text written in dialogue form between Gautier (Gualterus) and Baldwin (Balduinus). The work follows a common medieval pattern of Christian-Jewish disputation literature, attempting to prove from Old Testament prophecies that Jesus was the Messiah and that the Jews‘ rejection of Christ led to their reprobation.
The authors use standard medieval exegetical methods, including:
- Allegorical interpretation of Scripture
- Typological readings linking Old and New Testaments
- Citations from both Testaments to prove Christian theological points
- Arguments about the fulfillment of prophecy
Source. Patrologia Latina – Translated by Claude.AI. Gautier de Castellion and Baldwin of Valenciennes, CONTRA JUDAEOS. Migne, PL 209. 1855.