The following selections are drawn from Volume 89 of the Patrologia Graeca (J.-P. Migne, Paris, 1865), which contains the opera omnia of St. Anastasius of Sinai (c. 610–700 A.D.), Patriarch of Antioch, along with associated works. The principal source for adversus Judaeos material is the Disputatio Adversus Judaeos (col. 1203–1274), which the PG attributes to “Anastasius Abbas” and includes in this volume, alongside Anastasius’s other major works — the Via Dux (Hodegos), the Quaestiones et Responsiones, and the Anagogicarum Contemplationum in Hexaemeron. Passages from the Hodegos and Hexaemeron are also included below. The translations are rendered from the parallel Latin of the PG. Column references (col.) are to PG 89.
I. Christ as the Ruin of Jews and Gentiles
“Jesus, baptized in the Jordan, is the salvation of Christians, the dissolution of Jews and Gentiles, and the abolition of idols.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1205
II. Deicide: The Jews Crucified God
“Did your fathers crucify one called Jesus Christ? Yes or no? And for what cause did you crucify Him? Because He was a transgressor, and abolished the Law and the Sabbath. [Yet] what did the prophets proclaim concerning Him coming in the last days — that He should be sold, and at what price He should be sold; that He should be led to death, and that His hands and feet should be nailed to a cross; that He should taste vinegar and gall; that He should be pierced with a lance; and that the heavens should be darkened?”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1241–1242
“Since no one is without sin except God alone, it is evident that He whom you crucified is the true God — for He committed no iniquity, neither was guile found in His mouth.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1242
“Are you not ashamed, at last? Behold, you have acted manifestly shamefully. You said you crucified Him because He was a transgressor of the Law, yet the prophet says He committed no iniquity.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1242
“He who denies the divinity of Christ is to be numbered among the God-killing Jews [τῶν θεοκτόνων Ἰουδαίων].”
— Via Dux (Hodegos), citing St. Gregory of Nazianzus, PG 89, col. 197
“Deus passus est a dextra Israelitica — God suffered at the right hand of Israel.”
— Via Dux (Hodegos), citing Melito of Sardis, Oration on the Passion, PG 89, col. 197
III. The Diaspora as Divine Punishment for the Crucifixion
“Show me: what prophet has been found among you since you crucified Christ? What kingdom do you possess today? Where are your judges? Where your princes? All have failed. Where is your Temple? Behold, it lies desolate. Where are the tablets you received? Behold, they are no more. Where are your sacrifices? Behold, they have ceased. Where is the ark of the covenant? Behold, it does not appear. Where is the altar that Moses made? Where is the budding rod? Where the urn and the manna? Where the overshadowing in the Temple and the purification of the sanctuary? Where is the fire that descended from heaven? Where do you have even one prophet today? Truly you have none.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1221–1222
“Even if you would say nothing, the very stones will cry out — that from the moment you crucified Christ, you were abandoned. And therefore until now and forever you have been abandoned, scattered, stripped bare, and cast out from the Temple and from Sion.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1237–1238
“Your fathers, who fashioned the calf, who transgressed the Law in many things, who worshipped the golden image, and who sacrificed their sons and daughters to the devil — they were chastised for seventy and one hundred years in Babylon in Persia, and were called back. But you who have sinned against Christ shall be cast out, not for merely one hundred and seventy years, but until the consummation of the age.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1237–1238
“What sin did you commit before God, that for eight hundred and more years He has scattered you throughout all the earth, and brought Titus and Vespasian from Rome, who slaughtered from among you a hundred myriads in Jerusalem — as your own historian Josephus, who alone set these things forth, testifies — and burned your Temple, and laid waste the altar and the holy places, and all the city and Sion, and led you into captivity? And you are scattered throughout all the earth and without law until this day.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1237
IV. Supersessionism: The Old Covenant Abolished, the New Established
“Every place that God gave you, He has taken all of them from you and given them to us. If you speak of Sinai, where you received the Law yet did not receive it — Christ is glorified there today. If you speak of the Jordan, where your people once crossed over — since Christ was baptized there, it is He who is glorified there by us. If you speak of Jerusalem and Sion — since Christ was crucified there, His sufferings are venerated there today. If the Mount of Olives — since Christ ascended from there, He is glorified there. If Bethlehem, city of David — since Christ was born there, He is glorified there as in heaven, always. And why do I speak of Bethlehem, and Sion, and Jordan? Pass through the West, survey the East, inquire under all heaven — even the British Isles, even the westernmost and uttermost ends of the earth: whatever belonged to the religion of the Jews and Gentiles is antiquated and abolished; but all the mysteries of Christ are believed, honored, and confirmed.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1221–1222
“Saying new, He has antiquated the first. Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not abide in My covenant, and I neglected them, saith the Lord.“
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, citing Jeremiah 31:31–32, PG 89, col. 1251–1252
“When Christ came, He brought the new Law and fulfilled the old. For thus saith God through the prophets Isaiah and Micheas: Out of Sion shall go forth the Law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.“
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1241
“The kingdom that God promised to give to the incarnate Christ our God endures forever, and He has entrusted it to faithful and Christian emperors, and reigns together with them. Through Him the faithful peoples, who have been allotted into His possession, are shepherded in the faith. Therefore, although all the nations have fought against the Christian empire and at times prevailed, they have never overthrown it and never shall — for it is co-reigned by our Lord Jesus Christ and shall not pass away until the end of the age.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1210
“We the Gentiles have been called sons of Christ, and we serve Him and glorify Him together with the Father and His Holy Spirit unto ages of ages. Amen.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1238
V. Jewish Spiritual Blindness
“So truly did David speak of you: They have eyes and shall not see; they have hearts and do not understand. How is it that what you war against, that same thing you desire; and what you abominate, that same thing you gladly accept — wonderfully overcome by yourselves? And if you had mind and understanding, this sign alone would suffice to show and persuade you and all that the faith and the cross of Christ reign forever.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1225–1226
“Traverse the West, survey the East, search all that is under heaven, even the British Isles and the uttermost ends of the world: whatever pertained to the religion of the Jews and of the pagans is grown old and abolished; but everything of Christ is believed, honored, and confirmed.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1222
“Israel, pursuing the law of its own righteousness, did not attain to righteousness. Why? Because it sought it not from faith, but from works of law… They stumbled at the stone of stumbling, as it is written: Behold, I lay in Sion a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal, and whosoever believeth in Him shall not be confounded. This is what the Jews suffered: busying themselves with the superfluities of the Law, they were unwilling to see the stone foretold by the prophets.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1257–1258
“God gave them a spirit of insensibility, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day. For it was not God who made them unbelievers, but He permitted it, that is, He allowed it; by spirit of insensibility He called their unchangeable disposition. For as one who has a praiseworthy judgment does not admit a change for the worse, so he who has given himself wholly to wickedness does not choose a change for the better. And another prophet says: The heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have closed, and they were unwilling to see the light.“
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1271–1272
“Even as your fathers foretold the promised expectations and yet missed the opportunity of salvation, so also shall you. Therefore, if you believe that there is a Christ, seek Him now; for afterward He will not be found.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1215
“Jacob the patriarch, when blessing his sons and making his testament, spoke thus of Christ: The scepter shall not depart from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, until He come for whom it is reserved, that is, Christ, and He shall be the expectation of the nations — as one who foreknew the blindness of the Jews [γινώσκων τὴν τῶν Ἰουδαίων πώρωσιν]. So the Jews wait in vain in their waiting; for the Christ whom the nations await has already come, and therefore the scepter and the ruler have departed from Juda.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1219–1220
VI. The Theological Enmity of the Jews
“You have not spared Isaiah, nor Jeremiah, nor the rest of the prophets, nor indeed Christ Himself; and how then can you spare us Christians? But if you had the power which we now possess, you would not permit even one of us to live in your midst — just as we tolerate you.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1233–1234
“Every harlot applies her own name to the free woman, crying out to her: Harlot! For you did not spare Isaiah and Jeremiah and the rest of the prophets, nor indeed Christ Himself; and how would you spare us Christians?”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1233
“You, Judæi, are His enemies, trodden under the feet of the Christian people until the last hour. Wherefore you are justly trampled, and what shall befall you is just; for the time which you proclaim and await comes upon you swifter than a glance — at which time you and he in whom you believe, the deceiver, shall receive the eternal punishment of fire to which you are reserved.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1215–1216
VII. Condemnations from Israel’s Own Prophets
“Behold, God Himself through your own prophets says many evil things concerning you: Sons have I begotten and exalted, but they have despised Me; the ox hath known his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel hath not known Me, and My people hath not understood. Woe to the sinful nation, a people full of sins! And again the same prophet Isaiah says to you: Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of God, ye people of Gomorrha. See how God calls the Jews Sodomites and unbelievers and a foolish people, and idolaters, and ungrateful, and a wicked and perverse generation, and children worthy of blame.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1235–1236
“O great blindness of your people! O evil will! O ungrateful and voluntarily darkened soul! Above on the mountain Moses was struggling on your behalf, and below you were casting the calf; above he was entreating God, and below you were provoking God and worshipping the calf; you ate the manna, and you insulted God. For David says: The food was yet in their mouths, and the wrath of God rose up against them.“
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1235
“And they sacrificed to demons and not to God, and they abandoned God who made them, and they apostatized from God their Savior.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1237
VIII. The Stiff-Necked People: Stephen’s Accusation Applied
“O you Jews, stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers also did. And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One. Were not your fathers in Jerusalem murderers and traitors? Thus also you, their children, imitating them, refusing to believe the voices of the prophets, remain haters of Christ — you who received the Law through the disposition of angels and did not keep it.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1249–1250
IX. The Prophecy of Daniel Fulfilled: Sacrifice Abolished at Christ’s Coming
“Show us now, then, what Christ it was who came, anointed as Holy of Holies, after the seventy weeks, that is, after four hundred and ninety years from Daniel, who abolished the sacrifice and the observance of the Law. When was the sacrifice and the observance of the Law taken away? If therefore you do not lie in saying that Christ has not yet come but is to come, show us what Christ it was who came four hundred and ninety years after Daniel, the Holy of Holies. But there is no one else you can point to who did this, save Jesus Christ the Son of God.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1239–1240
X. Theological Enmity in Debate: The Jewish Sophist Acoluthus
“When I was engaged in debate at Antinopolis with Acoluthus the sophist, who was himself a Jew, he set against the miracles of Christ the innumerable miracles of Moses. Then I having said that Moses, being a prophet, performed prodigies by means of prayer; whereas Christ, being God, accomplished His miracles by His own sovereign command without prayer…”
— Anagogicarum Contemplationum in Hexaemeron, Lib. VI, PG 89, col. 884
XI. The Church’s Triumph Over the Jews
“This doctrine furnishes to the Church a great weapon and a powerful trophy of victory against the Jews, who accuse us of establishing three Gods, and against the Barbarians who say to us: If God is of God, and the Son is of God, how can two be one God? To whom it may rightly and aptly be replied: If Eve is of Adam, human being of human being, how does God call the two one human? If you ask me how the Trinity is in unity, tell me how the two first-formed ones are said to be two in unity.”
— Anagogicarum Contemplationum in Hexaemeron, Lib. X, PG 89, col. 1009–1010
XII. The Jewish Messiah Is a Deceiver and Antichrist
“If we do not produce the prophets declaring Him to be God, then we err, and the Jews speak truly. Indicate to me, therefore, of whom the prophet spoke: Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord; God the Lord hath appeared to us. Attend carefully: He plainly calls Him God and Lord, saying: God and Lord, and He hath appeared to us. Whether therefore He has appeared, that is, has come to us, or is yet to appear, He is not your Christ of the Jews, but ours of the Christians — for you expect one who is to come as a mere man and not as God; but David proclaimed as God and Lord him who was to come and who has come. Therefore, he whom you Jews await is an impostor and Antichrist; but He who has come and is worshipped and believed by us Christians is truly and really the true Christ.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1218–1219
XIII. The Replacement of the Synagogue by the Church
“God says through Hosea: I will call that which is not My people, My people — that is, the Gentiles who believe in Him — and her that hath not obtained mercy, the beloved — that is, the Synagogue of the Jews.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1219–1220
“They who were not a people are now the people of God; they who had not obtained mercy have now obtained mercy. Whom He called, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles, as in Hosea He says: I will call not-my-people, My people; and her that had not obtained mercy, Beloved; and it shall be in the place where it was said to them, Ye are not my people, there they shall be called sons of the living God.“
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1257–1258
“We who believe and are baptized are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for possession, that we might declare the virtues of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light — who once were not a people but are now the people of God; who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
— Disputatio Adversus Judaeos, PG 89, col. 1258
Sources
- Patrologia Graeca, Tomus LXXXIX: S. Anastasius Sinaita, Patriarcha Antiocheni, Opera Omnia / Anastasii Abbatis, Adversus Judaeos Disputatio, ed. J.-P. Migne (Paris, 1865). Digitized from the Stanford University Libraries copy: https://books.google.com/books?id=1oxV1dlsdrEC
- Disputatio Adversus Judaeos (Anastasii Abbatis), PG 89, col. 1203–1274 — Primary source for adversus Judaeos material; first published in full Greek-Latin bilingual edition in this volume after the Greek text was recovered from a Vatican manuscript.
- Via Dux (Hodegos) (S. Anastasius Sinaita), PG 89, col. 35–310 — Contains passages citing patristic testimonia on the Jews as God-killers in the context of Christological controversy.
- Anagogicarum Contemplationum in Hexaemeron (S. Anastasius Sinaita), PG 89, col. 851–1078 — Contains the account of the debate with the Jewish sophist Acoluthus and theological weapons against Jewish objections.