On Christian Discipline
II. God’s Indignation.
In the law, the Lord of heaven, and earth, and sea has commanded, saying, Worship not vain gods made by your own hands out of wood or gold, lest my wrath destroy you for such things. The people before Moses, unskilled, abiding without law, and ignorant of God, prayed to gods that perished, after the likenesses of which they fashioned vain idols. The Lord having brought the Jews out of the land of Egypt, subsequently imposed on them a law; and the Omnipotent enjoined these things, that they should serve Him alone, and not those idols. Moreover, in that law is taught concerning the resurrection, and the hope of living in happiness again in the world, if vain idols be forsaken and not worshipped.
XXXVII. The Fanatics Who Judaize.
What! Are you half a Jew? will you be half profane? Whence you shall not when dead escape the judgment of Christ. You yourself blindly wander, and foolishly go in among the blind. And thus the blind leads the blind into the ditch. You go whither you know not, and thence ignorantly withdraw. Let them who are learning go to the learned, and let the learned depart. But you go to those from whom you can learn nothing. You go forth before the doors, and thence also you go to the idols. Ask first of all what is commanded in the law. Let them tell you if it be commanded to adore the gods; for they are ignored in respect of that which they are especially able to do. But because they are guilty of that very crime, they relate nothing concerning the commandments of God save what is marvellous. Then, however, they blindly lead you with them into the ditch. There are deaths too well known by them to relate, or because the heaping up of the plough closes up the field. The Almighty would not have them understand their King. Why such a wickedness? He Himself took refuge from those bloody men. He gave Himself to us by a superadded law. Thence now they lie concealed with us, deserted by their King. But if you think that in them there is hope, you are altogether in error if you worship God and heathen temples.
XXXVIII. To the Jews.
Evil always, and recalcitrant, with a stiff neck you wish not that you should be overcome; thus you will be heirs. Isaiah said that you were of hardened heart. You look upon the law which Moses in wrath dashed to pieces; and the same Lord gave to him a second law. In that he placed his hope; but you, half healed, reject it, and therefore you shall not be worthy of the kingdom of heaven.
XXXIX. Also to the Jews.
Look upon Leah, that was a type of the synagogue, which Jacob received as a sign, with eyes so weak; and yet he served again for the younger one beloved: a true mystery, and a type of our Church. Consider what was abundantly said of Rebecca from heaven; whence, imitating the alien, you may believe in Christ. Thence come to Tamar and the offspring of twins. Look to Cain, the first tiller of the earth, and Abel the shepherd, who was an unspotted offerer in the ruin of his brother, and was slain by his brother. Thus therefore perceive, that the younger are approved by Christ.
XL. Again to the Same.
There is not an unbelieving people such as yours. O evil men! In so many places, and so often rebuked by the law of those who cry aloud. And the lofty One despises your Sabbaths, and altogether rejects your universal monthly feasts according to law, that you should not make to Him the commanded sacrifices; who told you to throw a stone for your offense. If any should not believe that He had perished by an unjust death, and that those who were beloved were saved by other laws, thence that life was suspended on the tree, and believe not on Him. God Himself is the life; He Himself was suspended for us. But you with indurated heart insult Him.
XLI. Of the Time of Antichrist.
Isaiah said: This is the man who moves the world and so many kings, and under whom the land shall become desert. Hear how the prophet foretold concerning him. I have said nothing elaborately, but negligently. Then, doubtless, the world shall be finished when he shall appear. He himself shall divide the globe into three ruling powers, when, moreover, Nero shall be raised up from hell, Elias shall first come to seal the beloved ones; at which things the region of Africa and the northern nation, the whole earth on all sides, for seven years shall tremble. But Elias shall occupy the half of the time, Nero shall occupy half. Then the whore Babylon, being reduced to ashes, its embers shall thence advance to Jerusalem; and the Latin conqueror shall then say, I am Christ, whom you always pray to; and, indeed, the original ones who were deceived combine to praise him. He does many wonders, since his is the false prophet. Especially that they may believe him, his image shall speak. The Almighty has given it power to appear such. The Jews, recapitulating Scriptures from him, exclaim at the same time to the Highest that they have been deceived.
XLIV. Of the First Resurrection.
From heaven will descend the city in the first resurrection; this is what we may tell of such a celestial fabric. We shall arise again to Him, who have been devoted to Him. And they shall be incorruptible, even already living without death. And neither will there be any grief nor any groaning in that city. They shall come also who overcame cruel martyrdom under Antichrist, and they themselves live for the whole time, and receive blessings because they have suffered evil things; and they themselves marrying, beget for a thousand years. There are prepared all the revenues of the earth, because the earth renewed without end pours forth abundantly. Therein are no rains; no cold comes into the golden camp. No sieges as now, nor rapines, nor does that city crave the light of a lamp. It shines from its Founder. Moreover, Him it obeys; in breadth 12,000 furlongs and length and depth. It levels its foundation in the earth, but it raises its head to heaven. In the city before the doors, moreover, sun and moon shall shine; he who is evil is hedged up in torment, for the sake of the nourishment of the righteous. But from the thousand years God will destroy all those evils.
LVIII. That the Christian Should Be Such.
When the Lord says that man should eat bread with groaning, here what are you now doing, who desires to live with joy? You seek to rescind the judgment uttered by the highest God when He first formed man; you wish to abandon the curb of the law. If the Almighty God has bidden you live with sweat, you who are living in pleasure will already be a stranger to Him. The Scripture says that the Lord was angry with the Jews. Their sons, refreshed with food, rose up to play. Now, therefore, why do we follow these circumcised men? In what respect they perished, we ought to beware; the greatest part of you, surrendered to luxuries, obey them. You transgress the law in staining yourself with dyes: against you the apostle cries out; yea, God cries out by him. Your dissoluteness, says he, in itself ruins you. Be, then, such as Christ wishes you to be, gentle, and in Him joyful, for in the world you are sad. Run, labour, sweat, fight with sadness. Hope comes with labour, and the palm is given to victory. If you wish to be refreshed, give help and encouragement to the martyr. Wait for the repose to come in the passage of death.
LXXX. The Name of the Man of Gaza.
You who are to be inhabitants of the heavens with God-Christ, hold fast the beginning, look at all things from heaven. Let simplicity, let meekness dwell in your body. Be not angry with your devout brother without a cause, for you shall receive whatever you may have done from him. This has pleased Christ, that the dead should rise again, yea, with their bodies; and those, too, whom in this world the fire has burned, when six thousand years are completed, and the world has come to an end. The heaven in the meantime is changed with an altered course, for then the wicked are burnt up with divine fire. The creature with groaning burns with the anger of the highest God. Those who are more worthy, and who are begotten of an illustrious stem, and the men of nobility under the conquered Antichrist, according to God’s command living again in the world for a thousand years, indeed, that they may serve the saints, and the High One, under a servile yoke, that they may bear victuals on their neck. Moreover, that they may be judged again when the reign is finished. They who make God of no account when the thousandth year is finished shall perish by fire, when they themselves shall speak to the mountains. All flesh in the monuments and tombs is restored according to its deed: they are plunged in hell; they bear their punishments in the world; they are shown to them, and they read the things transacted from heaven; the reward according to one’s deeds in a perpetual tyranny. I cannot comprehend all things in a little treatise; the curiosity of the learned men shall find my name in this.
I know nothing of the second poem of our author, and am indebted for the following particulars to Dr. Schaff.
It is an apologetic poem against Jews and Gentiles, written in uncouth hexameters, and discusses in forty-seven sections the doctrine concerning God and the Redeemer and mankind. It treats of the names of Son and Father; and here, probably, he lays himself open to the charge of Patripassian heresy. He passes to the obstacles encountered by the Gospel, warns the Jews and the Gentiles to forsake their unprofitable devotions, and enlarges on the eschatology, as he conceives of it. Let me now quote textually, as follows:—
The most interesting part of the second poem is the conclusion. It contains a fuller description of Antichrist than the first poem. The author expects that the end of the world will come with the seventh persecution. The Goths will conquer Rome and redeem the Christians; but then Nero will appear as the heathen Antichrist, reconquer Rome, and rage against the Christians three years and a half. He will be conquered in turn by the Jewish and real Antichrist from the East, who, after the defeat of Nero and the burning of Rome, will return to Judea, perform false miracles, and be worshipped by the Jews. At last Christ appears, that is, God himself (from the Monarchian stand-point of the author) with the lost Twelve Tribes [?] as his army, which had lived beyond Persia in happy simplicity and virtue. Under astounding phenomena of nature he will conquer Antichrist and his host, convert all nations, and take possession of the holy city of Jerusalem.
This idea of a double Antichrist re-appears in Lactantius, Inst. Div., vii. 16 seqq.
This second poem was discovered by Cardinal Pitra in 1852. The two poems were edited by E. Ludwig, Leipzig, 1877 and 1878.
Source. New Advent – Translated by Robert Ernest Wallis. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0411.htm>.
Commodian’s Carmen Apologeticum
Adversus Judaeos (Against the Jews)
Translation from Latin
Introduction
The Carmen Apologeticum (Apologetic Song) is a polemical poem by Commodian, a 3rd or 4th century Christian writer, likely from North Africa. The work is written in acrostic verse and constitutes an extended argument directed primarily against the Jews, though it also addresses Gentiles and heretics. The poem defends Christian claims about Jesus as the Messiah and criticizes Jewish rejection of this belief, drawing heavily on Old Testament prophecies interpreted in a Christian framework.
What follows are key passages from the work that focus specifically on Jewish themes—the nature of prophecy, the interpretation of scripture, Christ’s passion and resurrection, and the consequences of Jewish rejection of Jesus. The translation aims to be clear and readable while preserving the argumentative thrust of Commodian’s verses.
The Jewish People and Prophecy (Lines 237-268)
Seeing such things, the Jews were troubled in mind, led by the evils of envy and consumed by jealous hatred. They did not heed the words of the prophets, deceived into thinking that a man would come who would scatter them. The prophets sang until the Lord came; from the time he came, prophecy fell silent among the Jews. After him they went into exile with hardened hearts, and now they do not understand why they have suffered such things.
It had been foretold to them by the prophet Isaiah and Daniel likewise, the path by which they would lose their land—which would not happen, however, until the leader of the city himself hung upon the wood, after which the land would become desolate. How suddenly glory shone upon the Gentiles, that a people might be made who were not a people before! Esau, beloved by his father, was not astonished that his younger brother took the birthright. So too the synagogue could not recognize the time, when and by which leader it would fall, deprived of its own; just as it was written, that birds know their seasons, but this people did not understand my presence.
It was discovered that the very ruler of heaven would come, but according to the scriptures he was not reckoned among them. The Lord was foreknowing of this, since he knows all things; therefore he foretold these things through the mouths of the prophets.
The Stiff-Necked Nation (Lines 261-275)
O nation exceedingly stiff-necked and ever rebellious! While it claimed primacy for itself, the cause was cut off. In their place he appointed the Gentiles to rule; he had said this before: “The Gentiles will hope in him.” For he himself is the stone placed in the foundations of Zion, so that whoever believes in him might have eternal life. Daniel designates this holy of holies to be anointed, and after him the royal anointing to be destroyed.
David said that he who was silent would be fixed with nails: “They pierced,” he says, “my hands and my very feet.” Solomon too prophesied so openly about him, that the Jews would say, “Let us kill the righteous man!” Jeremiah showed the cross figuratively in equal measure: “Come, let us put wood in his bread!” they say. “Before your eyes will hang the life that was killed.”
Christ’s Humiliation and Crucifixion (Lines 331-354)
Isaiah himself declares this one to be humble and greatly cast down, as if in the form of a servant: “And we saw him, and he had no distinguished appearance, laid down in suffering, a man; knowing how to bear all things. He suffers for our sins and carries our transgressions, and God handed him over for our crime, who, when he was tormented, was silent like a lamb to the altar.” This was now not a man, but God caring for us, whereby it appears plainly that this name of God arises, which now is held as a distinguished name among the nations.
This the prophet Malachi sings, who is also an angel himself, when he reproves the sacrifices of the Jews saying: “Your sacrifice will not be acceptable to me, but in every place the nations offer to my name, among whom my excellent name is magnified, who offer purely to my name without bloodshed.” For he himself was humble, concealed under a great name, who cries out about himself through prophetic mouths: “I am not stubborn,” he says, “nor do I contradict the evildoer. I have also given my back to scourges to be beaten, and my cheeks to be struck by unjust palms; I did not turn my face away from their spitting.”
It seemed foolishness to many that God should suffer such things, that the creator of the world should be proclaimed crucified.
Prophecies of the Passion (Lines 398-424)
It was foretold that God would be born in the flesh for us, so that it might justly become a greater torment for them: “Behold, God himself will give you a sign from on high; a virgin will conceive and the earth will bear a heavenly one; moreover, he commanded them that he be called Emmanuel,” which the Latin tongue interprets as “God with us.” Hear that he himself would be nourished with honey and butter, and would capture Samaria before speaking a word. But this is a closed history, which the learned expound, how a suckling child would take spoils without a battle.
His passion was foretold beforehand in this way, that God would become capable of suffering with outpoured blood. Isaiah says: “Like a sheep led to the altar, he did not cry out with his voice, but patiently endured all things.” You are truly my God and Lord! Against whom he was fixed with nails, which David had foretold long ago; and they gave him vinegar to drink according to the scriptures: “And on my garments,” he said, “they cast lots,” which we also read was done. In him all things were accomplished, and darkness was made for three hours until the sixth hour, and the day hastened to draw the stars of night—this had been foretold to happen through the prophet Amos—so that it might suddenly cover itself during the holy rites.
O evil offspring! O treacherous face! “I have begotten children,” said God, “who would deny me.” And he said: “Hear the voice of the trumpet.” “We refuse!” they say. Ezekiel says this: “The nations from afar will therefore hear.”
Jewish Blindness and Resistance (Lines 425-475)
With one title I wish to touch the book of Deuteronomy: “You will be at the head, O nations, for the unbelievers look backward.” They look back. Certainly all the things said above, rebels! Know what they propose, when the matter is spoken so openly? See now therefore, you who are doubtful and still wavering, that the nations were prior in the Lord’s scripture. Now therefore it is right to believe in him whom the books designate, not in vain idols which are uselessly worshiped as if for life, nor to join with those who are pleasure-seeking and without restraint, who love luxuries more than the precepts of the Most High.
It is not a single fault for those who refuse to believe, but rather they defame him: “We threw him in a pit.” Therefore the Lord also rebukes them indignantly, saying: “On account of you my name is blasphemed among the nations.” Why is it proclaimed that the one thrown in the pit truly rises? “O Lord, you placed my soul among the dead; I have slept,” he says, “and taken rest securely; by the Lord’s help I have risen, suffering no evil.” And again he says: “You will not abandon me to hell, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption.” He sounds forth saying: “Son of the prophet, I ascend.”
Let me speak of the Lord Most High suffering for the wretched, and in the book of Psalms there is a cry about the Lord’s death. They do not think that David refers to himself, or if they think that, do all the things he said fit together? David was not scourged nor raised on a cross. What? Do the Jews prophesy in the manner of Saturn? Do they gather in fables, when it already declines toward him? Are they not slapped as if a criminal raised on a cross? They invent such things for the ignorant, unlearned, and unknowing: “What god is he,” they say, “whom we fixed to a cross?” Unwilling to look at the scriptures, blinded in heart.
Behold, another prophet sings, repeating again, by whose voice such an edict is proclaimed: “Now I will arise,” says the Lord, “now I will be glorified, now I will be exalted, whom you saw humble before; now you will understand, now will be your confusion: you think vain things, therefore fire will have you.” Isaiah says this. Then also the majesty itself, when it was in the flesh, professes who it was: “No one will be able to take away my soul by force, but I lay it down of my own will by my decree. I myself have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again.”
But more openly it is proclaimed about the death of the righteous one, so that it might be clearer that the Jews are hardened: “Behold the righteous one perishes, and no one understands; but the burial of this beloved one will be in peace.” Why do they defame that he was thrown into a pit, when we read that he was handed over to burial? Shameful ones, cruel ones, blind ones, proud ones! Who should rather groan over the deed, they applaud!
The Words of Solomon Against Christ (Lines 477-502)
For Solomon, inspired, prophesied about him and pursues to show more fully: “Let us surround the righteous man, if he seems burdensome to us, who greatly resists contrary to our works. He reproaches us entirely for holding nothing of our law. He still affirms that he is the son of the Most High. In every way he rejects us and considers us foolish; he abstains and separates himself from us and goes to another place. He says we are unclean and the last things of the righteous altar, and rejoices that the Lord is the father of the heavens to him.
“Therefore, if his words are true, let us test them; let us see what end will be for him when he departs. If he is truly the son of God, he will help him and snatch him from the hand of the enemies. Let us examine him with insult and torture, so that we may know his patience and test his endurance. Let us condemn him to a most shameful death, for according to his words there will be a visitation of him.” So they thought, and were deceived, blinded in their malice. They did not know the mysteries of God, nor did they hope for the reward of holiness, nor did they judge the honor of blameless souls.
They mocked him hanging on the cross, moving their heads and saying: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. Let his father save him, if he delights in him.” What foolish ones, not seeing what they had done! O blind leaders of the blind! While they thought such things, they were led into wicked error. When, in their fury or rage, they crucified him, they did it. Therefore, now let them not mock; let them see fulfilled in him what they said they would do, if they wish, frustrating their own people. Let them see him whom they called a magician, and at length recognize the king, but too late.
The Charge of Magic and Prophetic Fulfillment (Lines 382-397)
Why is more needed, when the matter is so openly proven, when the people already rejoice in him who is accused? But those wretched ones who adorn vain fables and slander him as a magician—they should have closed their mouths to those who sing. What shall I call them? Before they were scattered, whom neither exile broke nor old age itself. If a magician had been present, why then did the prophets sing? If they falsely proclaim from them that they would lose the land, what came from them will also be false about him. But because they are always spurned, because they were bloodthirsty, they rebel against their own Lord, calling him a magician, and they refuse to hear what the prophets said about them, that they would not understand at all in the very end.
God himself described them as having a closed heart, so that they might not see with their eyes nor understand with a hardened heart; for he has made fat the heart of this wicked people, so that they acknowledge nothing, until they are healed by my word.
Jewish Rituals and Hypocrisy (Lines 670-727)
Still they make foolish the profane to go to their washing places, which they make clean to please God Most High. Water washes away dirt, not the iniquity of the inner heart. Nor can sacred rites cure the sacrilegious, nor did the Lord command that the wicked carry sacred things.
There is a place in Jeremiah, about being clean from idols: “Let no one make for himself an image of a demon,” he says, “and never serve those idols.” If God commanded to beware greatly of idols, why do they deceive the nations that they are pure through washings? Rather when they receive such people, they ought to teach them to serve no others, but only to please the Most High. While they seek to obscure the crime of Christ’s death, they open the gates everywhere, so that people may enter to them. Therefore those perish who think they can become God’s people by water, while they are conscious of being thieves before.
Now he worships anything in vain, now he seeks holy things, not knowing where he may first meet the ignorant one: he serves idols, again he seeks the thirtieth day; now he follows unleavened bread, he who was chaste before. This did not please God, to be sharers with demons, who instituted the law, by which there might be a crossing over from there. Two ways are set before you: choose which you wish, for you will not divide yourself so that you can go by both, but nevertheless from these you ought to seek the opportune one.
Be more cautious, lest you fall into the jaws of thieves: seek the one God, who seeks no sacrifice, so that being abolished you may rise in the renewed age. Why do you attend to the evil and judge the holy as wicked, who show you no word from the law?
The Violence and Rejection of the Jews (Lines 700-729)
The virtue of God is recounted, which he performed among them; for they do not wish to speak of their own wicked deeds, always murderers and always with bloodstained hands, whom the Lord could never tame by warning. It would have been enough for them through their laziness to have done such great things and to say: “It was written thus, now it is right to believe.” But the Lord himself darkened their senses, he hardened them as he did Pharaoh among them; and he says he does not wish to hear their prayers, and he cast them from their land in anger.
When he had already called them his sons before, he had willed it necessary that his children live with a good heart, when a father rejoices when he has a good son. But if he is evil, he curses the child with hatred. No one endures a son who is contrary to him. All affection excludes itself from a cruel child, and he does not make him his heir from the sum of his possessions. If he can first destroy him, he rejoices over the impious and savage offspring and the guilty or tyrannical child; nor does the parent, stirred up, endure confrontation from him.
Why do they presume, when they have been warned, saying: “Of all peoples we are most dear to the Most High?” The parricide of the father is always proud against him: can he be dear or rightly called an heir? If earthly fathers detest such children, how much more the Lord, whose sons surpass in being bequeathed! Gentle things, humble things, obediences full of dutiful children are divided to good ones, not to the impious nor to tyrants.
The Jews had been manifestly adopted as sons, but in the testament the impious have obtained the name.
Conclusion
These passages represent the core of Commodian’s argument adversus Judaeos—against the Jews. Throughout the poem, Commodian presents a systematic Christian polemic that attempts to demonstrate through Old Testament prophecy that Jesus was the promised Messiah, that the Jews were willfully blind to this truth, and that their rejection of Christ led to their dispersion and loss of divine favor. The work reflects the anti-Jewish theological polemics common in early Christian literature, using proof-texts from the Hebrew Bible interpreted christologically to argue for Christian supersessionism.
Source. Internet Archive – Translated by Claude.AI. Commodiani Carmina, edited by Ernst Ludwig, includes Commodianus’ Carmen Apologeticum, Teubner, 1877/78.