ARGUMENT AGAINST THE Jews, TO THE HONORABLE AND MOST DISTINGUISHED MAN
ARGUMENT – He wrote this little book for refuting the Jews, in which he proves by many testimonies of sacred Scripture those things which are impiously denied by them, namely: the Trinity of persons in the Divine essence; that Christ, whom they call the Messiah, was God and man, and that he has already come into the world; and finally he blocks all those evasions by which they could craftily use against Christians.
To Lord HONESTUS, most beloved according to Egypt’s darkness, a man without discipline, PETER, the least servant of monks, perpetual charity in Christ.
“Avoid questions without discipline” (II Tim. 1); he immediately added: “But the servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, teachable, patient, correcting with all modesty those who resist, lest perhaps God may give them repentance to know the truth, and they may recover from the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive, to his will” (Ibid.). But since almost all the volumes of the Old Testament bear witness to Christ, we, setting aside a multitude of words, take care to add a few and clearer testimonies of the prophets, by which nevertheless you may be able with God’s help to obtain victory against all the madness of Jewish wickedness and their windy fabrications. And because an arrow is sent more directly if the target, which it should strike, is first placed opposite from the other side, we here introduce the fighting Jew himself, so that the points of our words may not flow out uselessly into the wind, but rather may reach a certain material when hurled.
Most beloved, you recently sent us petitionary words through our brother Leo, that we should write something to you, by which you might obstruct with rational arguments the mouths of Jews often disputing with you; and coming to controversy about Christ, you might overcome them with the most evident testimonies of Sacred Scripture. But if you desire to be a soldier of Christ, and to fight manfully for him, rather take up arms as a distinguished warrior against the vices of the flesh, against the machinations of the devil; namely, enemies who never die: rather than against the Jews, who have already been almost destroyed from the earth. Nevertheless, I by no means disparage this study either, indeed I judge it fair to satisfy your petition as well.
For it is disgraceful that an ecclesiastical man, when those who are outside calumniate, should remain silent through ignorance: and that a Christian, not knowing how to give an account concerning Christ, should depart vanquished and confused while enemies insult. Added to this is that often the harmful inexperience of this matter, and the simplicity to be avoided, not only suggests boldness to unbelievers, but also generates error and doubt in the hearts of the faithful. And since this knowledge certainly pertains wholly to faith, and faith is without doubt the foundation of all virtues; where the foundation is shaken, the whole structure of the building soon threatens to rush to ruin.
However, it should be known that a Christian man should not approach this contest for the sake of vain glory, or from love of contention alone: but rather if he hopes he can accomplish something of the grace of conversion in the mind of the disputant. Hence Paul also says: “If anyone wants to be contentious; we have no such custom” (1 Cor. 11). And to Titus: “But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and quarrels about the law: for they are unprofitable and vain” (Tit. 11). And when someone stirs up strife about this matter, he should be admonished not to exasperate the contender with the abuse of quarreling, or with the pride of arrogance: but to soothe his mind with benevolent charity, and most patient seriousness: so that the stony heart, which could become hardened worse by poured-out bitterness, the modest sweetness of words may perhaps be able to soften to believing. Hence it is that the same Apostle, having first said to Timothy: “But avoid foolish and undisciplined questions” (II Tim. 1); immediately added: “But the servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, teachable, patient, correcting with all modesty those who resist, lest perhaps God may give them repentance to know the truth, and they may recover from the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive, to his will” (Ibid.). But since almost all the volumes of the Old Testament bear witness to Christ, we, setting aside a multitude of words, take care to add a few and clearer testimonies of the prophets, by which nevertheless you may be able with God’s help to obtain victory against all the madness of Jewish wickedness and their windy fabrications. And because an arrow is sent more directly if the target, which it should strike, is first placed opposite, we here introduce the conflicting Jew himself, so that the points of our words may not flow out uselessly dispersed into the wind, but rather when hurled may reach certain material.
In the name of the Lord, the encounter itself begins.
Say therefore, O Jew (who while you deny the Trinity, consequently do not know the unity) if God, as you assert, is one in person, to whom did he say: “Let us make man in our image and likeness?” (Gen. 1). For if there were one person in the deity, he would not say “let us make,” but “I will make.” If there were three substances, he would not say singularly “our image,” but rather “our images.” Therefore while “let us make” asserts the triune, “our image” declares the one, it is most evidently established that God is essentially one, consisting of three persons. Come, Jew, proceed through the forests of divine eloquence, advance with me together, studiously turn over the pages of your law, will you find anything in them to disagree with this assertion of ours? Hear what your Moses says again: “This is the book of the generation of Adam in the day that God created man, in the image of God he made him: male and female he created them” (Gen. 1). What is it that is not said, that God created man in his image and likeness: but God created man in the image of God; unless that the person of the Father and the Son may be clearly distinguished? Similar to this is what is said again through the same Moses: “But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam were building” (Gen. 11). And a little later it is added: “Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there” (Gen. XI).
You see therefore, that “the Lord descended” declares one essence of divinity; but “come let us descend” teaches that there are three persons. Ask Abraham also, why he saw three and worshipped one? For it is written: “The Lord appeared to him in the valley of Mamre sitting at the door of his tent in the very heat of the day” (Gen. XVII); then it is added: “And when he had lifted up his eyes, three men appeared to him standing near him” (Ibid.). Behold when it was said beforehand, “the Lord appeared to him”; where the reason is given, it is not said, “a man appeared to him,” but “three men appeared to him.” Where it is openly shown that he who appeared to him is both one in the substance of deity, and three in persons. Which also the words of Abraham himself testify, when he says: “Lord,” he said, “if I have found grace in your eyes, do not pass by your servant: but I will offer a little water, and let your feet be washed, and rest under the tree” (Ibid.).
To which also most fittingly agrees what is written about Lot, that when two angels were leading him out from Sodom about to be immediately destroyed, Lot said to them: “I beseech you, my Lord, because your servant has found grace before you” (Gen. XIX); where also a little later it is added: “Therefore the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord from heaven” (Ibid.). For when the Lord is said to rain from the Lord, it is clearly evident that both persons, namely of the Father and of the Son, are signified. Hence it is that he says to Moses: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” For what is it that he commemorates himself as being the God of only three Fathers, and not also of the others? Is he not also the God of Enoch? Is he not the God of Noah, and of other innumerable righteous men? What is it, I say, that passing over other Fathers he calls himself the God of only three men, unless that he who is one in substance, may show himself to be three in persons?
This Trinity of persons also, and unity of nature, the prophet Isaiah manifestly taught, when he reported seeing seraphim crying out: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts” (Isa. IV). For that the Trinity of persons might be shown, “holy” is said three times. But that the Trinity may appear to be one substance, he is reported to be “Lord of Hosts,” not “Lords.” Which David also thinking similarly says: “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made firm” (Ps. XXXII). For the Word of the Lord is the Son of the Father.
But that the same heavens may be shown to have been worked by the whole Trinity at once, immediately concerning the divinity of the Holy Spirit is added: “And by the Spirit of his mouth all their power” (Ibid.). Concerning which Spirit it is read elsewhere: “His Spirit adorned the heavens” (Job XXVI). In another psalm also the same David says: “May God bless us, our God, may God bless us” (Ps. LXVI). Who when he had said God three times, that he might show it was one, added: “And let all the ends of the earth fear him” (Ibid.). And, that we may demonstrate another blessing of God similar to this which the Holy Spirit speaks through the mouth of David, let us return to the book of Numbers. There finally it is written: “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons: Thus you shall bless the children of Israel, and you shall say to them: May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord show his face to you, and have mercy on you; may the Lord turn his countenance to you, and give you peace” (Num. VI). And, that it may be clear that he is one God, whose name is repeated over the people with a triple invocation, immediately is added: “They shall invoke my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
Behold, O Jew, while we run through almost all the volumes of your law by turning them over, we most fittingly find the unity of the divine essence, and the Trinity of persons. And if we wish to collect all the testimonies that are available to us from your books to affirm this, we will perhaps fail first with our tongue growing weary, before we lack a supply of examples. But since every assertion of your party strives especially in this, that it contends to deny that Christ is God, or the Son of God, now also let the article of our allegation proceed directed on this path. But I do not wish you, as is your custom, to turn yourself into the monsters of various forms with crafty evasions, unless like a slippery serpent, when you have been captured, you desire to escape from hands, but let all the bowels of your senses be open to understanding, let the heart cast off the ancient veil of ignorance, let the ears of the mind attend vigilantly. When truly you will not be able to oppose me, let it rationally be silent; so that, if it is possible, he who provides me, namely an unlearned man, with material of arguments to build up his truth, may also pour the light of his wisdom into the darkness of your mind to believe.
CHAPTER I
Concerning Christ, who is the Son of God
Let us begin therefore, and let us confidently implore his help, of whom we speak, saying: “Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; and let those who hate him flee from his face” (Ps. LXVII). Therefore we read, believe, and prove that God the Father Almighty begot the Word from himself before all ages. But if you, O Jew, contend to deny this, without doubt you are convicted of fighting against that very God whom you assert you worship. For he himself says: “My heart has uttered a good word” (Ps. XLIV). Concerning this word it is said through another prophet: “The Word of the Lord is strong and mighty, who will be able to comprehend it?” (Isa. LV). Concerning this again Isaiah speaks, where he says: “So shall the word be which shall go forth from my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall do whatever I will, and shall prosper in those things to which I sent it.” Who indeed if he were speaking about a transitory word, would not announce that it would return to him, or that it would do something. By the power of which Word the earth was founded, and the heaven with its lights made solid, and the sea spread out in its bosom. Concerning which, as was said above, it is read: “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made firm” (Ps. XXXII). This Word begotten from the Father before the ages, willed to become man in the womb of the Virgin at the end of the ages. Concerning the incarnation of which Word Habakkuk speaks, saying: “Before his face the Word will go, and will go forth into the fields” (Hab. III).
But what this word is, if it is carefully inquired, is found a little later below, when he says: “But I will glory in the Lord, and will rejoice in God my Jesus” (Ibid.). Hence also Isaiah most openly cries out, saying: “Behold,” he says, “a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a Son: and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which is interpreted God with us” (Isa. VII). Concerning whom it is said through the same prophet elsewhere: “The Lord loved him, he will do his will in Babylon, and his arm in the Chaldeans. I, I have spoken, and have done: I have called him, I have brought him, and his way is made straight” (Isa. XLVIII). And immediately from the person of the Son himself is added: “Come near to me, and hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning: from the time before they were made I was there: and now the Lord God has sent me, and his spirit. Thus says the Lord God the redeemer, the holy one of Israel: I am the Lord your God teaching you useful things, governing you in the way in which you walk: I wish you had attended to my commandments, and the rest” (Ibid.).
Hear still also the testimony of the prophet Micah concerning Christ: “It shall be,” he says, “in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and high above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall hasten. And they shall say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem: and he shall judge among many peoples, and shall rebuke strong nations even afar off” (Mic. V). Which indeed Isaiah brought forth not only under the same sense but almost the same syllables: nor does it grieve us to write again what the Holy Spirit willed to double through the mouths of two prophets to strengthen the sentence of our assertion. He says therefore: “It shall be,” he says, “in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and shall be elevated above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it, and peoples shall go, and they shall say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for the law shall go forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem: and he shall judge the nations, and shall rebuke many peoples” (Isa. II); where also a little later is added: “O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Ibid.). For neither is one believed to have borrowed this sentence from the other, since each prophet is known to have prophesied at the same time, and under the same kings.
But if all these witnesses of truth do not yet suffice for you, O Jew, hear also your Baruch saying: “This is,” he says, “God, and no other shall be esteemed besides him: who found every way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved: after this he was seen upon earth, and conversed with men” (Baruch II). For if Christ, as you assert, is not God, show me from your books when after the law was given to Jacob, God was seen on earth and conversed with men. But since you will not be able to find it, it is necessary that you confess yourself convicted in all things.
But lest I seem rather to circumvent you with my words, than to overcome you with the examples of prophets, let Daniel also approach, and bear witness concerning Christ: “When,” he says, “the Holy of holies shall come, anointing shall cease” (Dan. VI). You will say: The Holy of holies has not yet come, the Messiah has not yet come, but he is to come, show the anointing. Therefore since you have now lived for a thousand years, and more without a king, and have lain under the feet of the nations, from where do you now expect the expectation of the nations? From that time your anointing ceased (for you no longer have a temple, no king, no priests), acknowledge that the Holy of holies has come, concerning whom it is said through Isaiah: “I am God calling a bird from the East, and from a far country the man of my will: and I have spoken, and I will bring it, I have created and I will do it. Hear me, you hard of heart, who are far from justice, I have brought near my justice” (Isa. XLVI). Still also let the patriarch Jacob approach into the middle: “The scepter shall not be taken away from Judah, and a leader from his thighs, until he who is to be sent comes: and he shall be the expectation of nations” (Gen. XLIX).
For from that time when you said to Pilate, crying out: “We have no king but Caesar” (John XIX); you did not have a king: and you who refused to hear the King of kings, lost the kingdom together with the country. Which Moses had foreseen well, when he was saying: “The Lord will raise up for you a prophet from your brothers: every soul who does not hear that prophet shall be exterminated from his people” (Deut. XVIII). And again the same Moses says: “For the Lord will give you a fearful heart, and failing eyes, and a soul consumed with sorrow, and your life shall be hanging before you: you shall fear night and day, and shall not believe your life” (Ibid.). But when was your life hanging before you, unless then when moving your head before the cross you were saying: “He saved others, he cannot save himself?” (Matt. XXVII). “If he is the Son of God, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him” (Mark LXV). Which most manifestly the Son of God himself speaks through the mouth of David, saying: “All who saw me, despised me” (Luke XXIII); “they spoke with their lips, and moved their head. He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him save him, because he wants him” (Ps. XXI). In which psalm also he shows more clearly than light the fixings of nails in his hands and feet, saying: “They have dug my hands and my feet: they have numbered all my bones” (Ibid.).
If you do not know, that was your ox, O Jew, which was then immolated before you on the altar of the cross, but through your deserving merits, it is not yet eaten by you. Concerning which Moses speaks against you in Deuteronomy, saying: “Your ox,” he says, “shall be immolated before you, and you shall not eat of it” (Deut. XXVIII). That was the donkey, concerning which he again says: “Your donkey shall be seized in your sight, and shall not be returned to you” (Ibid.). For rightly our Redeemer is called through the figure of a donkey, who to take up the burdens of our wickedness, in a certain way placed his back under; because as it is said through the prophet: “He himself bore our sins” (Isa. LIII). Where still is fittingly added: “Your sheep,” he says, “shall be given to your enemies: and there shall be no one to help you” (Ibid.).
But what are the sheep by which the synagogue should have been helped is manifestly declared, when it is added: “Your sons and your daughters shall be handed over to another people, your eyes seeing, and failing at their sight all day long, and there shall be no strength in your hand.” For the holy apostles, who are called sheep through innocence, are sons of the Israelite race, because they draw their origin from their progeny. Who indeed are then handed over to another people, when with the Jews persecuting they say: “It was necessary to speak the word of God to you first; but because you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we turn to the Gentiles. But you seeing these things did not see, and hearing did not understand” (Acts XIII). Which the same Moses reproaches you even to this day, saying: “The Lord has not given you an understanding heart and seeing eyes, and ears that could hear until the present day” (Deut. XXVIII). The same also curses against you saying: “May God strike you with madness, and blindness, and fury of mind: and may you grope at midday, as the blind is accustomed to grope in darkness, and may you not direct your ways” (Ibid.).
And Isaiah: “Hear,” he says, “hearing, and do not understand: and see the vision, and do not know. Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and close their eyes; lest perhaps they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart: and be converted, and I heal them” (Isa. VI).
Do you still want another testimony of Isaiah concerning Christ? “I,” he says, “have raised him up to justice, and all his ways I will direct: he shall build my city, and shall release my captivity, not for price, nor for gifts, says the Lord of hosts. Thus says the Lord: The labor of Egypt, the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabaim; tall men shall come over to you, and shall be yours, and shall walk after you; bound in chains they shall pass over, and shall worship you, and shall beseech you. Only in you is God, and there is no God besides you. Truly you are a hidden God, God of Israel the Savior” (Isa. XLV). Speak, O Jew, respond, who is that one who says: “I have raised him up to justice?” But if you do not know, proceed, turn your eyes to the end of the former sentence, and see that it says, “the Lord God of hosts.”
But now if you know that God speaks: consider also to whom he speaks. Descend therefore to the end of the following line and see what is said: “Only in you is God, and there is no God besides you. Truly you are a hidden God, God of Israel the Savior.”
Therefore if he is God who speaks; God to whom he says: “You are God”; it follows certainly that not the temporal David, but the Son coeternal with the Father, who truly is strong in hand, is understood. That also which you similarly interpret in David I do not think should be passed over in silence: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand” (Ps. CVIII). For if this, as you assert, should be understood of David, how by what reason will that which follows be able to be fitted to David? “With you is the principality in the day of your power, in the splendors of the saints, from the womb before the morning star I begot you.” And again: “The Lord has sworn, and will not repent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Therefore if you cannot bend the following to the understanding of David, you are forced also to affirm that the preceding were said concerning Christ, to whom they most openly agree. Concerning whom Isaiah manifestly pronounces, saying: “In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a sign to the peoples: the nations shall beseech him, and his sepulcher shall be glorious” (Isa. XI).
For the root of Jesse stands as a sign to the peoples, when Christ impresses the seal of the cross on the foreheads of men. But his sepulcher is so glorious that, saving the fact that those redeemed through his death exhibit glory to him with all their bowels, we also see him flashing with miracles provoking the whole world to himself for the sake of his glory.
CHAPTER II
Concerning Christ, who is the Cornerstone
Tell me this also, O Jew, who is this stone which the Lord promises to place in the foundation of Sion? Hence Isaiah says: “Behold I will lay in the foundation of Sion a tried stone, a cornerstone, precious, laid in the foundation” (Isa. XXVIII). Who is, I say, this stone, unless he of whom David sings: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner?” (Ps. CXVIII). But if your stony heart thinks a material stone was spoken of by Isaiah, hear what follows: “Upon whom whoever shall fall, shall be broken: but upon whomever it shall fall, it shall crush him.” For it is clearly proven that a stone which is placed in the foundation of a wall cannot fall upon anyone. This is indeed that stone which Daniel saw cut out from the mountain without hands (Dan. II); Christ namely procreated without the work of those embracing, from the incorrupt virgin.
Hear still the testimony which the same Isaiah brings forth concerning Christ, saying: “There shall come forth,” he says, “a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness, and he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord” (Isa. XI). Now what is clearer than that which David sings in the psalm concerning Christ? “The Lord said to me: You are my Son, today I have begotten you; ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession” (Ps. II). Could David himself be called the Son of God, or having been established only on the throne of the Israelite people, did he possess all the kingdoms of the earth? Because therefore a mortal king cannot be seen to fit this prophecy, it follows that it should be believed said without doubt concerning Christ the Son of God. Concerning whom, namely the eternal David, Isaiah says: “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the faithful mercies of David. Behold I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and a commander to the nations. Behold you shall call a nation which you did not know, and the nations that did not know you shall run to you. Because of the Lord your God, and the holy one of Israel, for he has glorified you” (Isa. LV). Was not David already departed from this life when the prophet was saying these things? How therefore could it be said concerning him that he was going to call nations, and nations would run to him, who already stripped of the body did not remain with mortals? If therefore this oracle of prophetic promise is recognized to have been unable to be said at all concerning that David who had already died, it remains that it should be believed to have been brought forth concerning him who had not yet come.
CHAPTER III
The Errors of the Jews are Refuted
But what is it that is said: “After you shall sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which shall be of your sons, and I will establish his kingdom” (II Reg. VII). How, I say, could this be said of Solomon, who was not born after the death of David, or began to reign, but reigned while his father was still living? What is it therefore that is said: “After you shall sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you;” unless that Christ is signified in this promise, who was not to be raised up before the death of David, but long after his death? Who indeed would build a house to the Lord not from manufactured walls, but from living and precious stones, that is, from holy and just ones. That also which is added: “His house shall be faithful, and his kingdom unto eternity before me” (Ibid.). Who would understand it said of Solomon, when he reads that his house was full of foreign women? For by what pact was the house of Solomon faithful to God, which was full of gentile women, and worshipping idols? He himself also seduced by them fell into idolatry, and good in the beginning, alas! had bad endings. Or how is his throne rightly said to be most firm in perpetuity, while it is established that no king is found anywhere today from the seed of Solomon?
It is necessary therefore, O Jew, that you confess all these things which you see can in no way agree with Solomon, agree in all things with Christ. Concerning whom also Zechariah testifies, saying: “Thus says the Lord God of hosts: Behold a man, the Orient is his name, and under him he shall spring up, and shall build a temple to the Lord: he himself shall build the temple, and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit, and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne” (Zech. VI). And again: “Behold,” he says, “I will bring my servant the Orient, for behold the stone which I have laid before Jesus” (Zech. III). “Upon one stone there are seven eyes,” by which eyes the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are signified. But if all these examples of the prophets do not yet convince you, question still the eighty-eighth psalm, and consider the manifest promise of the Lord to David concerning Christ: “I have sworn,” he says, “to David my servant, unto eternity I will prepare your seed; and I will build your seat unto ages of ages” (Ps. LXXXVIII). And a little later: “I will set,” he says, “his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry out to me, You are my Father, my God, and the support of my salvation; and I will make him my firstborn, and high above the kings of the earth; forever I will keep my mercy for him, and my covenant faithful to him; and I will make his seed forever; and his throne as the days of heaven.” And again: “Once I have sworn in my holy one, if I shall lie to David, his seed shall remain forever, and his throne like the sun in my sight, and like the moon perfect forever, and a faithful witness in heaven.”
Therefore inspect carefully all these promises made to David, and either show a king from the progeny of David going before in his throne, or necessarily confess all things predicted concerning Christ, and completed in him. Proceed still, and examine another psalm. For who is he concerning whom it is said: “Sion the mother shall say: Man, and man was made in her, and the Most High himself founded her?” (Ps. LXXXVIII). Who is this Most High, who is both called man and most high? Search, inspect, turn over, if you please, all the pages of sacred eloquence, and consider that the Most High is said everywhere of God, nowhere is it found said of a simple man. It remains therefore that when Most High and man are joined together; God and man are one person, who is said to have been born in her, that is in Sion, he himself founded her. For it is necessary first for the city to be founded, and thus afterward for a man to be born in it. But who is able first to construct a city, and afterward in it to come forth from the womb of a mother? Who, I say, unless our Redeemer, who in those things which he made, deigned to be made?
What to these things, O Jew, will you now attempt to object? With what shamelessness of mind will you be able to oppose such clear, such open, such divine assertions? Grant that, as you blaspheming say, Christ could have fabricated lies concerning himself; could he also, before he was born, if he were not God, have been able to prophesy himself through the mouths of others? That also how you understand, it delights to hear: “My heart has uttered a good word, I speak my works to the king” (Ps. XLIV). Who is that king to whom God speaks his works. You say to me perhaps: David; but read the sixth psalm in order, and understand the truth of the sense: descend a little lower, and ask not me, but the Lord himself, who is the king to whom he himself speaks his works. Hear what God himself speaks to the aforesaid king: “Your throne,” he says, “O God, is unto ages of ages; the rod of direction is the rod of your kingdom” (Ibid.). If therefore he is God who speaks, God to whom the speech is directed; it follows that not that temporal David, but the Son coeternal with the Father, who truly is strong in hand, is understood. That also which you similarly interpret in David I do not think should be passed over in silence: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand” (Ps. CVIII). For if this, as you assert, should be understood of David, by what reason will that which follows be able to be fitted to David? “With you is the principality in the day of your power, in the splendors of the saints, from the womb before the morning star I begot you.” And again: “The Lord has sworn, and will not repent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Therefore if you cannot bend the following to the understanding of David, you are forced also to affirm that the preceding were said concerning Christ, to whom they most openly agree. Concerning whom Isaiah manifestly pronounces, saying: “In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a sign to the peoples: the nations shall beseech him, and his sepulcher shall be glorious” (Isa. XI).
For the root of Jesse stands as a sign to the peoples when Christ impresses the seal of the cross on the foreheads of men. But his sepulcher is so glorious that, saving the fact that those redeemed through his death exhibit glory to him with all their bowels, we also see him flashing with miracles provoking the whole world to himself for the sake of his glory.
CHAPTER IV
It is Confirmed that Christ is Truly the Son of God
Now truly among so many oracles of the prophets, among so many most evident testimonies of the saints, will you, Jesus son of Sirach, be entirely silent, and will you also among the rest not bring forth testimony concerning Christ? Let now your most eloquent wisdom approach into the middle, and introduce the stronger Jesus, namely the fountain of paradise, into the circle of the earth under the figure of the evangelists with his four rivers: “The law,” he says, “Moses commanded in the precepts of righteousness, and inheritance to the house of Jacob, and to Israel of the promise. He appointed to raise up from David his servant a most strong king sitting on the throne of honor forever. Who fills like Phison with wisdom, and like Tigris in the days of the new: who fills like Euphrates the sense, who multiplies like Jordan in the time of harvest, who sends forth discipline like light, and stands like Gehon in the day of the vintage” (Ecclus. XXIV).
Behold, good Jesus, one testimony concerning Christ, give consequently also another: “In his word,” he says, “the wind was silent, by his thought he calmed the abyss, and the Lord Jesus planted it: on account of him the end of the journey was completed, and in his word all things were completed” (Ecclus. XLIII). “We shall say many things and shall fail in words. But the consummation of the words is he himself. Glorying in all things, what shall we be able to do? For he himself is almighty above all his works; the Lord is terrible, and great exceedingly, and his power is wonderful. Glorifying the Lord as much as you can, he will yet prevail and admirable is his magnificence. Blessing the Lord, exalt him as much as you can: for he is greater than all praise. Exalting, be filled with strength, do not labor: for you will not comprehend. Who has seen him, and narrated? And who has magnified him as from the beginning? Many things are hidden greater than these: for we have seen few of his works.”
Which indeed all things anyone who considers the order of Scripture can doubt were brought forth concerning our Redeemer? Let Jesus still add a third testimony concerning our Savior, so that, so to speak, in the mouth of two or three testimonies, let every word stand. He says therefore: “Christ purged his sins, and exalted his horn forever, and gave him the covenant of kings, and the seat of glory in Israel” (Ecclus. XLVII). Therefore if Christ, who according to the flesh drew his origin from David, himself purged the sins of David, himself exalted the horn of David in perpetuity, and conferred on him the seat of glory; it is clearly established that he is the son of David, and he is also the creator of David. For the reader perceives that these things are said of David, if he runs through with continuous eye the order of the preceding text.
Let Isaiah cease not still to bear testimony concerning Christ: “I will place upon those,” he says, “who have fled from Moab, the lion and the remains of the earth. Send forth the lamb, O Lord, the ruler of the earth from the rock of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion” (Isa. XVI). For from this race of the Moabites the immaculate Lamb went forth, who takes away the sins of the world, who rules in the circle of the earth. For he who is called a lion on account of fortitude, the same is reported as a lamb on account of meekness. But the rock of the desert is understood as Ruth, who having been deserted by the death of her former husband, begot Obed from Boaz, from whose stock also Christ descended. But therefore that I mix the sayings of the prophets, and now bring forth the testimonies of this one, now recur to the words of that one whom I had already left, this I contend to do from weariness, namely for the sake of avoiding satiety; lest if many testimonies of one are heaped together at once, disgust should be generated in hearers. Through individual testimonies also I take care to place the names of the prophets, so that if anywhere the place is sought where what is said, it may easily be found to avoid calumny.
Again therefore let Daniel approach as a witness, and let him bring forth into the middle what he knew concerning Christ; but let him first narrate what king Nebuchadnezzar saw after he ordered the three boys to be thrown into the furnace of fire: “Behold,” he says, “I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and there is no corruption in them, and the appearance of the fourth is like to the Son of God” (Dan. I).
Behold, O Jew, you have the Son of God, why do you still strive to deny the Son of God? Speak, respond; what could be expressed more perspicuously, what more manifestly concerning the Son of God, than to say the Son of God? But if now you can object nothing, you can find no escape, give your hands, humbly hand yourself over to the victor, and confess that you are conquered and thoroughly overcome. Now also let Daniel himself say what he saw concerning Christ, concerning the Son: “I was watching in the vision of the night, and behold with the clouds of heaven one like the Son of man was coming, and he came even to the Ancient of days: and they presented him in his sight, and he gave him power, and honor, and kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him. His power is an eternal power, which shall not be taken away: and his kingdom, which shall not be corrupted” (Dan. VII).
And again in the eighth vision the same Daniel: “Know,” he says, “and incline your ear, and take notice from the going forth of the word, that Jerusalem should be built again unto Christ the leader, seven weeks, and in distress of times the walls: and after sixty weeks Christ shall be killed: and the people that shall deny him shall not be his” (Dan. II). What can be said more openly, what more expressly concerning the death of Christ than what is said, “Christ shall be killed”? Here no mystical figure lies hidden, not an obscure sentence, but rather an open one, although now the history is narrated concerning future things. To which Daniel also the angel Gabriel says a little above again: “But you take notice of the word, and understand the vision: seventy weeks are shortened upon your people, and upon your holy city: that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be blotted out, and everlasting justice may be brought, and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled, and the Holy of holies may be anointed” (Ibid.).
But if you doubt concerning the predetermined number of times, read Tertullian, and you will manifestly find that there were four hundred ninety years from the first year of Darius king of the Persians until the destruction of Jerusalem, which was done through Vespasian the prince of the Roman Empire. But seventy weeks complete four hundred ninety years without any doubt. But you say that Christ has not yet come, and that you still expect him to come. But who doubts that this number of years has been passed from the time of Daniel? since I know that one thousand forty years have been added above to this sum.
Do you still want to hear other and other most clear testimonies concerning the death of Christ, and without any obscurity at all brought forth? Hear therefore what Solomon asserts concerning the Jews plotting against Christ, and dealing about his death: “The impious said,” he says, “among themselves: Come, let us surround the just man, because he is useless to us, and is contrary to our works, and reproaches us for sins against the law, and spreads abroad against us sins of our discipline. He promises to have knowledge of God, and calls himself the Son of God. He has been made to us as a rebuke of our thoughts. He is grievous for us even to see, because his life is unlike others, and his ways are changed. We are esteemed by him as trifles, and he abstains from our ways as from uncleannesses, and prefers the last things of the just, and glories to have God as his father. Let us see therefore if his words are true, and let us test what shall come to him. For if he is the true Son of God, he will receive him, and will deliver him from the hand of adversaries. Let us question him with contumely and torment, that we may know his reverence. Let us condemn him with a most shameful death; for there shall be respect from his words. These things they thought, and erred: for their malice blinded them, and they knew not the sacrament of God, nor did they hope for the reward of justice, nor did they judge the honor of their souls” (Wis. II).
And Jeremiah: “The spirit,” he says, “of our mouth Christ the Lord was captured in our sins: to whom we said: In your shadow we shall live among the nations” (Lam. IV). And through blessed Job the Lord himself placed in the passion complains, saying: “My wrinkles bear witness against me, and a false speaker rises up against my face contradicting me. He has also gathered his fury against me, and threatening me, he has gnashed his teeth against me: my enemy has beheld me with terrible eyes. They have opened their mouths upon me, reproaching they have struck my jaw, they are satiated with my punishments. God has shut me up with the wicked, and has delivered me into the hands of the impious. He has surrounded me with his lances, and has wounded my loins; he has not spared, and has poured out my bowels upon the earth” (Job XVI). Which indeed all things completely foreign to blessed Job are found to have been completed more clearly than light in Christ.
Behold who after such perspicuous light of examples still needs testimonies, it remains that to contemplate the sun radiating at midday he should demand the light of a lamp. For when you see before you, O Jew, the rays of so many celestial stars shining, I wonder what so dense darkness of blindness is able to occupy a place even in empty orbits of eyes. For this perspicuous light of truth could not escape even him who lost the eyes of his heart by the fog of dark cupidity, namely Balaam, who while he preferred the light of others to their riches, himself walked in darkness. If therefore, O Jew, you do not want to have the guidance of those seeing to the way of truth, at least as a blind man follow this blind leader: hear what he himself says: “Balaam said the son of Beor: the man whose eye is stopped said: the hearer of the words of God said, who knows the doctrine of the Most High, and sees the vision of the Almighty, who falling has open eyes: I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near. A STAR SHALL RISE out of Jacob, and a rod shall spring up from Israel, and shall strike the leaders of Moab, and shall waste all the children of Seth. And Idumea shall be his possession, the inheritance of Seir shall fall to his enemies: but Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall he come that shall rule, and shall destroy the remnants of the city” (Num. XXIV).
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Source. Patrologia Latina – Translated by Claude.AI. Peter Damian, Antilogus contra Judaeos, Migne, PL 145.41A–58A. 1853.
DIALOGUE BETWEEN A Jew INQUIRING AND A CHRISTIAN RESPONDING IN OPPOSITION, TO THE SAME HONORABLE MAN
ARGUMENT: He even more vehemently refutes the obstinacy of these same Jews, while resolving certain captious questions which they frivolously object against Christians. All these hang upon that main point: why, if Christ came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it, are the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law neglected by Christians?
He therefore shows that the precepts of the Mosaic Law were mystical and prefigurations of future things, and therefore came to their end in Christ.
Now let a brief discourse be woven between us in a certain dialogue of inquiry and response concerning some ceremonies about which you frequently inquire most scrupulously and raise the light of questions with verbose circumlocutions, so that when satisfaction has been given to you concerning all things, you may either be compelled to give your hand being convinced, or withdraw confused with your shameful unbelief. Come then.
Question 1: If Christ did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it, why is the Christian not circumcised in the flesh?
Response: Indeed, the Christian is now not circumcised precisely because Christ fulfilled what was prophesied by circumcision. For the stripping away of carnal life, which had been prefigured in the old law, is now seen completed in Christ’s resurrection: and what we expect to be future in our resurrection is now commended in the mystery of holy baptism. Therefore carnal circumcision is rightly despised as superfluous, since now the spiritual circumcision, for the signification of which that preceded, is celebrated.
Question 2: Why does the Christian omit to observe the Sabbath, if Christ did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it?
Response: The Sabbath is not observed by us because what was then sent forth in figure, we now see fulfilled through the exhibition of the reality. For in Christ we observe the true Sabbath of spiritual rest, since we place hope in him alone, and thus rest in him with all the love and devotion of our heart, so that we cease from all servile work of vices and from the ambition of earthly things. For he himself calls us to this rest, when he cries out: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Therefore we consider the observance of the carnal Sabbath superfluous, since we now celebrate that true and saving rest for which it was instituted.
Question 3: If Christ did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it, why does the Christian neglect the distinction of foods which the law commands to be observed?
Response: Indeed, therefore this distinction of foods is not admitted by Christians, because by Christ what was prefigured through this is fulfilled. For the uncleanness which was then guarded against in foods is now reproved in morals. For just as all the holy and just are transferred into the body of Christ, so the reprobate and wicked are repelled from him as unclean foods.
Therefore, after Truth itself, which was signified, has come, the shadow of signification has rightly ceased.
Question 4: If Christ did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it, why does the Christian not care to offer sacrifice to God with the flesh of animals?
Response: Indeed, therefore this kind of sacrifice is not offered by Christians because whatever was done typically in those victims is all truly fulfilled in the immolation of the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world (John 1), and because all those things had no salvation except that they unanimously tended toward this our sacrifice. This one thing all the diversity of ceremonies designated. After the singular victim shone forth, the multiple shadow which preceded vanished. For who does not know that the same sacrifices were imposed rather on the disobedient people lest they fornicate with idols, than offered to God as if he desired them?
Question 5: If Christ did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it, why does the Christian not observe the unleavened bread which the law commands?
Response: Therefore visible and corporal unleavened bread is scorned by Christians, because with the leaven of the old life purged out, the new sprinkling is spiritually fulfilled. For then it was a precept of the written law, now it is a testimony: and after that which was signified has come, that which signified it has perished.
Question 6: If Christ came to fulfill the law, why does the Christian not celebrate the Passover with the blood of the paschal lamb, when the law itself so greatly decrees this?
Response: Here the same thing must be answered which was already said above; because after that true Lamb who was signified is known to have come, that which signified him is judged superfluous. With his blood indeed we now anoint not wooden or stone doors, but rather sign the inner parts of the interior man.
Question 7: If Christ did not destroy the law, why does the Christian not celebrate the new moon commanded by the law?
Response: Therefore also the Christian scorns to celebrate this, because Christ fulfilled all that for which it was once celebrated. For the solemnity of the new moon designates that a new creature is made in man, concerning which the Apostle says: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5).
Question 8: If Christ did not come to destroy the law, why does the Christian not observe those baptisms of ablutions which the law commands?
Response: Therefore these do not merit the observance of Christian worship, because then they were shadows of future things, whose clear fulfillment we now possess. “For we were buried with Christ through baptism into death” (Rom. 6), so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Question 9: If the law was fulfilled by Christ, not destroyed, what reason is objected that the solemnity of Tabernacles is not observed by Christians?
Response: The tabernacle of God is the society of the Christian people, and since that tabernacle prefigured the holy Church, the sign is despised after that which was prefigured has come. For it would not be called the tabernacle of testimony unless it testified to certain truths which were to be declared in their own time. Therefore what was then done, prefigured by precept, is now seen revealed by testimony in its presence: and when that which was prefigured is now beheld, that which prefigured it is judged entirely superfluous.
Question 10: If Christ did not wish to destroy the law but to fulfill it, why does the Christian not observe the seventh year of remission or also the Jubilee?
Response: For thus the seventh day is commanded to be observed as a holiday, so that through it eternal rest may be designated. So also in the seventh year, and so also in the Jubilee, which through the cycle of years by the number seven replicated seven times, and with one added, is led to fifty, secure rest of perpetual beatitude is intimated. For at the beginning of the Jubilee, trumpets are sounded, and all return to their own possessions; because as the Apostle says: “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise imperishable.” Moreover, for each one to return to his possessions is to receive immediately their incorruptible bodies. Then Adam will return to the ancient earth of his flesh, in which he first dwelt: then to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and all, their own possession is returned, when an incorruptible body is restored to them. Therefore our Redeemer, who opened the understanding of his disciples so they might understand the mysteries of the Scriptures, did not wish the Jubilee, did not wish the seventh year of remission, or the other ceremonies of legal rite to be observed carnally.
After he made all these things to be understood spiritually—for then the legal commands are truly fulfilled when they are done according to the spiritual understanding for which they were instituted. For then they were empty, namely a shadow and image of the thing, not the thing itself, when they were observed carnally. Do you wish to hear how they were empty and vain, and not truth itself but examples of truth? Hear what the Lord says to Moses in Exodus: “And the poles shall be on both sides of the altar for carrying it: not solid, but hollow and empty you shall make it, as it was shown to you on the mountain” (Ex. 27). Therefore what Moses saw on the mountain is the holy Church, that is the truth. But that tabernacle constructed in the desert is a shadow and image of that same Church, according to whose example it was made. It is like a man, in whose image a seal is made, but in vicarious comparison, the man is indeed called the thing and the truth, while the seal is seen as only a likeness of the thing and its form.
Therefore after the fullness of time came, he fulfilled it when he commanded these things to be exhibited spiritually. Whence it happened that after the coming of the Lord, that earthly Jerusalem with its temple was utterly destroyed and fell in ruins, so that only the holy universal Church might shine throughout the world. For as the evangelist reports, when some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts, he said: “As for these things which you see, the days will come when there will not be left stone upon stone that will not be thrown down” (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21). For that great royal city was Jerusalem, where the most famous temple had been built to God, but after he came who was the true temple of God, and the mysteries of the heavenly Jerusalem began to be opened, that earthly one was destroyed where the heavenly appeared, and in that temple no stone remained upon stone. Previously there was a high priest purifying the people with the blood of bulls and goats: but from the time the true high priest came, who purified believers with his blood, that former high priest is nowhere, nor has any place been left for him. Previously there was an altar, sacrifices were celebrated, but when the true Lamb came, who offered himself as a victim to God, all those things ceased as placed for a time: indeed divine dispensation prudently arranged this, so that both the city itself and the temple and all those things would be subverted together, lest perhaps anyone still childish and nursing in faith, if he saw those things standing while he was astonished and stupefied at the ritual of sacrifices, at the order of ministers, might be carried away by the very sight of diverse forms. But providing for our weakness, and seeing his Church multiplying, he caused all those things to be subverted and utterly removed, so that with all hesitation ceasing, with shadows and typical images passing away, the old might remain superior: and with the material temple overthrown, the Church alone might reign throughout the world.
EPILOGUE
But now, Jew, after such a cloud of witnesses, I will make an epilogue for you, and beginning from the origin of Christ’s humanity through the increments of time up to the consummation, I will place prophetic testimonies before your eyes, if you have them, so that as if collected under one view you may briefly see what you were noticing me to set forth diffusely and scattered above. For that the Son of God would assume our humanity, Jeremiah testifies, saying: “The Lord will make a new thing upon the earth, and a woman will encompass a man” (Jer. 31). For if he were speaking of a simple man, it would be superfluously stated as new, what is seen customary everywhere in the human race. Moreover, that that woman would be a Virgin through whom the Son of God would come forth as through a heavenly gate from the bosom of the Father to our public life, Ezekiel shows, who says: “He brought me back to the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which looks toward the east, and this was shut; and the Lord said to me: This gate which you see will be shut, and will not be opened, and no man will pass through it, but it will always be shut” (Ezek. 44). For the blessed Virgin Mary is always shut, because both before birth and after birth she is always incorrupt. Concerning whom also David sings, saying: “He has set his tabernacle in the sun, and he comes forth like a bridegroom from his chamber” (Ps. 19).
Moreover, that he would be a little child in the substance of humanity, so that he might make us great from the virtue of divinity, Isaiah bears witness, who says: “For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace: his empire will be multiplied, and there will be no end of peace: he will sit upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and justice from now and forever” (Isa. 9). For when he whom he had previously described as a little child, he afterward declares should be called Mighty God and Father of the age to come, he more clearly manifests God and man. And again also Isaiah says: “The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion and the sheep will dwell together, and a little child will lead them” (Isa. 11). For through the bowels of holy charity the wolf will dwell with the lamb, because those who were plunderers in the world rest in peace with the gentle and meek, and the leopard lies down with the kid, because he who was varied with the spots of his sins consents to be humbled with him who despises himself and confesses himself a sinner. Where it is also added: “The calf and the lion and the sheep will dwell together,” because both he who prepares himself as a daily sacrifice to God through a contrite heart, and another who raged like a lion from cruelty, and that one who persists like a sheep in the simplicity of innocence in the fold of holy Church—all have come together. Which animals indeed the little child leads, because he who was made a little lower than the angels, lest our hearts cling to earthly things, daily invisibly inflames us through interior desire. Who through his charity which he gives to us does not permit us to fix our minds in this world. And this very leading of his is to kindle us unceasingly to his love, lest when we love him in return, we remain in mind in this exile.
Also, that he would be brought to the temple, the prophet Malachi announces, saying: “Thus says the Lord: Behold, I send my angel, and he will prepare the way before my face, and immediately the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple, and the angel of the covenant whom you desire. Behold, he comes, says the Lord of hosts, and who can consider the day of his coming?” (Mal. 2). Moreover, that while still a child he would be led into Egypt and brought back, Hosea manifests, when he says: “As the morning passes, the king of Israel will pass, because Israel was a child, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hos. 11).
Moreover, that he would come to Jerusalem sitting upon a donkey, Zechariah declares, saying: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold your King will come to you, just and a savior: he himself poor and riding upon a donkey and upon the foal of a donkey; and I will destroy the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken: and he will speak peace to the nations, and his power will be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth” (Zech. 9). Moreover, that he would rebuke the Jews and correct their malice, Isaiah declares, when he says: “He will not judge according to the vision of his eyes, nor rebuke according to the hearing of his ears, but he will judge the poor in justice, and will rebuke in equity for the meek of the earth, and he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked, and justice will be the belt of his loins, and faith the girdle of his reins” (Isa. 11). Furthermore, that he will be baptized in the Jordan, Isaiah announces, when he says: “Let the desert and the solitudes of the Jordan rejoice and exult, and my people will see the height of the Lord and the majesty of the Lord” (Isa. 35). And a little after: “And I will open rivers on the mountains, and I will break through the mountains and will confound the thirsty land without water” (Isa. 44).
That he would be betrayed by his own disciple, the Lord himself testifies, who complains through the mouth of David, saying: “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me” (Ps. 41). And again: “If my enemy had reviled me, I would have endured it; and if he who hated me had spoken great things against me, I would have hidden myself from him: but you, a man of one mind, my guide and my acquaintance” (Ps. 55). For that he would be sold for silver, Amos bears witness, who says: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four I will not convert him, because he has sold the just man for silver” (Amos 2). Moreover, that it would be for thirty pieces of silver, Zechariah enumerates, saying: “They weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver” (Zech. 11).
And that these same pieces of silver were thrown down by Judas after receiving them, this same prophet also subtly pursues, when he adds: “And the Lord said to me: Cast it to the potter, a handsome price at which I was valued by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them into the house of the Lord to the potter” (Ibid.). Where also a little after concerning the condemnation of the Jews it is added: “They will look upon me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn with mourning as over an only son, and will grieve as one is accustomed to grieve over the death of a firstborn” (Zech. 12). There also he clearly announces the figures of the nails in the hands of the Lord, when he says: “And it will be said: And what are these wounds in the middle of your hands? And he will say: With these I was wounded in the house of those who loved me” (Zech. 13); where it is still added: “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd and against the man who clings to me, says the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered” (Ibid.).
Moreover, that he would be hung on wood, Jeremiah manifests, saying: “Lord, you have shown me and I knew, you showed me their plans, and I was like a gentle lamb that is carried to the victim. And I did not know that they thought counsels against me, saying: Let us put wood in his bread, and let us eradicate him from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more” (Jer. 11). That his garments were divided by lot, he himself testifies through the mouth of David, saying: “They divided my garments among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots” (Ps. 22). For that he would be fed with gall and given vinegar to drink, through the same David he bears witness, when he says: “They gave gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Ps. 69). Moreover, that he would be spat upon and pierced with lances, Jeremiah (?) intimates, saying: “Wicked men rose up against me without mercy, they sought to kill me, and did not spare spitting in my face, and they wounded me with their lances.”
Concerning his descent to hell and the rescue of the saints, through Hosea he speaks in this manner: “From the hand of death I will free them, from death I will redeem them: I will be your death, O death; I will be your sting, O hell” (Hos. 13). Moreover, that he would rise on the third day, and at no other hour of the day but dawn, the same Hosea clearly proclaims, saying: “Come, and let us return to the Lord, because he has seized us and will heal us, he will strike and will cure us, he will revive us after two days, on the third day he will raise us up; and we will live in his sight, we will know and follow that we may know the Lord, his going forth is prepared as the dawn, and he will come to us like the rain, the early and the late rain to the earth” (Hos. 6).
Moreover, concerning the law of the New Testament which he was to spread throughout the world, he promises through Jeremiah, saying: “Behold, days will come, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant which I made with your fathers in the day when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt: the covenant which they made void, and I was their master, says the Lord. But this will be the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jer. 31).
That he would ascend into heaven and send the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, David briefly comprehends in one verse, saying: “Ascending on high he led captivity captive, he gave gifts to men” (Ps. 68; Eph. 4). For Christ ascending on high led captivity captive, because he swallowed up our corruption by the power of his incorruption; moreover he gave gifts to men, because having poured forth the Spirit from above, he granted diverse gifts of heavenly charisms to his disciples. And Joel says: “And it will be after these things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your elders will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. But also upon my servants and handmaids in those days I will pour out my spirit” (Joel 2). Concerning this same outpouring of the Spirit, Isaiah bears witness, saying: “Fear not, my servant Jacob, most chosen whom I have chosen: for I will pour out water upon the thirsty, and streams upon the dry land. I will pour out my spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring” (Isa. 44). Moreover, concerning baptism which he was to command to be done throughout the world, he promises through Ezekiel saying: “I will pour out upon you clean water, and you will be cleansed from all your defilements, and from all your idols I will cleanse you” (Ezek. 36). Moreover, that he himself will judge the world, the Psalmist testifies, who after he said beforehand, “The Lord has reigned from the tree,” concerning the same Lord who reigned from the tree, in the end he adds saying: “He will judge the world in equity, and the peoples in his truth” (Ps. 96).
Now therefore, Jew, just as the testimonies of sacred Scripture do not draw you to faith in Christ, if such clear and evident sayings of all the prophets do not move you, I am pleased still, setting aside of course the examples of the prophets, to contend with you by reasoning alone, and to briefly agitate one little question with you at the end of this small work; so that nothing may seem unattempted by our efforts which would be fitting for your conversion.
Come then, answer me: what graver sin are your fathers known to have perpetrated, by which they would kindle the anger of God more and provoke his vengeance more sharply upon themselves? You will say: murmuring, idolatry, fornication. And I agree with you in this, and I judge these three of their offenses to have been more damnable: nevertheless all these things did not bring irrevocable vengeance before the mercy of God’s justice.
Indeed, to return to the history of your antiquity, concerning murmuring it is read in the book of Numbers: “Because the whole crowd, crying out, wept that night, and all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying: Would that we had died in Egypt, and not in this vast wilderness; would that we might perish, and the Lord not lead us into that land, lest we fall by the sword, and our wives and children be led captive. And they said to one another: Let us appoint a leader for ourselves and return to Egypt” (Num. 14). Nevertheless, on account of this immense sin of murmuring, the vengeance of divine severity did not rage against them for more than forty years, as it is read that the Lord said to them: “Your children will wander for forty years and will bear the iniquities of their fathers, until your corpses are consumed in the desert according to the number of forty days in which you considered the land. A year will be counted for each day, and for forty years you will receive your iniquities” (Ibid.). Also for the calf which they worshiped near Mount Sinai, we know that no more than twenty-three thousand men were slain by swords, as is read in the book of Exodus: “Moses said to them: Let each man put his sword upon his thigh, and go and return from gate to gate through the middle of the camp, and let each one kill his brother and friend and neighbor. The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and on that day about twenty-three thousand men fell. And Moses said: You have consecrated your hands to the Lord, each one in his son and brother, so that blessing might be given to you” (Ex. 32). Also for the fornication which they practiced with the daughters of Midian, similarly no more than twenty-three thousand men fell by the sword, as is again written in the book of Numbers: “And the plague ceased from the children of Israel, and twenty-three thousand men were killed” (Num. 25), etc.
What therefore is this, that God is read to have taken such brief vengeance for the sins of your fathers; but this servitude of yours and dispersion throughout the whole world has already been prolonged for so many ages? Read also your Josephus (On the Jewish War), there you will find that for the vengeance of Christ’s death, which Titus exercised with Vespasian, from the people of the Jews ten times one hundred thousand fell by swords, and eleven times one hundred thousand were led captive: and after these things, however many of you remain with the devouring sword, you are seen subjected in servitude beneath the feet of all nations. Indeed your fathers, whoever were led into captivity, in that very captivity were never entirely destitute of the fellowship of prophets, namely so that they might continually intercede for their sins, and always recall the law of the Lord to their memory, and bring great consolation to them in present calamities; while they announced to them a certain moment of future return to the fatherland. As it is said through Zechariah: “The angel of the Lord said: O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which you have been angry? This is the seventieth year. And the Lord answered the angel who was speaking to me with good words, consoling words” (Zech. 1). And through Jeremiah: “All these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years: and when seventy years are completed, I will visit upon the king of Babylon” (Jer. 25), and the rest.
It is clear therefore that your fathers, although they were often struck by divine retribution, were nevertheless sometimes refreshed and recreated with lavish consolations: but you, from the passion of Christ until today, placed in such very long calamities, do not see a prophet among you anywhere on earth; but you do not at all hear a messenger of future prosperity sent to you from God. What therefore is this incurable guilt of yours? Whence this irremediable punishment for you? Whence, I say, except because you killed Christ the Son of God, and after the deed was done you refused to return to the fountain of life? For this most profound abyss of your iniquity transcends the measure of all wickedness, surpasses the enormity of all crimes. Clearly Moses foresaw this sin of yours, when enraged against you he said: “Gather to me all the elders of your tribes and teachers, and I will speak these words to them as they listen, and I will call heaven and earth against them. For I know that after my death you will act wickedly, and will quickly decline from the way which I have commanded you, and evils will meet you in the last time, when you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, so that you provoke him through the works of your hands” (Deut. 31).
Now therefore, Jew, hear my counsel, so that you may have God, whom you have as angry, as propitious: put off the garment of the old man, and receive the sacrament of new grace; may the blessings of Gerizim please you, so that you may escape the curses of Ebal (Deut. 27); abandon the error of Jewish blindness, and direct yourself to the truth of evangelical grace: be without doubt secure concerning pardon, if converted to the faith of Christ, you will be sprinkled with the water of holy baptism.
But since perhaps I am more effective in your soul by praying to God than by preaching to you, may the God of your fathers cast away from your heart the ancient veil of ignorance, and with the darkness of errors dispelled, may he pour over you with new light of his knowledge, who promises through his prophet, saying: “If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant of Israel will be saved” (Isa. 10; Hos. 1; Rom. 9).
EPILOGUE
Behold, you yourself perceive, dearest brother Honestus, that while I studied to provide for your weakness, I did not care to pour forth the colored flowers of rhetorical eloquence, I did not care to set forth acute arguments of dialecticians. For saving the fact that it does not please me to follow the trappings of secular wisdom, because I know that you are also entangled in secular affairs and cannot read many things, I did not wish to burden you with lengthy distinctions of arguments. Wherefore, while I have set forth to you almost bare examples of the Scriptures, I have put as it were a bundle of arrows into a quiver. And because from contrary words abundance of responding is suggested, I have indeed provided weapons; by which you may pour out in battle, where you may turn around your shield, because wars do not yet threaten, I could not teach fully. Therefore you have set before you what is necessary for this kind of conflict. Use what has been prepared, as you decide to employ it.
May Almighty God, most beloved brother, mercifully protect you from the snares of invisible enemies and lead you immune from this kind of contest to the celestial kingdoms. Amen.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Source. Patrologia Latina – Translated by Claude.AI. Peter Damian, Dialogus inter Judaeum, Migne, PL 145.57B–68A. 1853.
Letters 1-30
Letter 8
For him also they sang that commendation peculiar to Christ, not presumptuously, but out of the sheer excess of their devotion: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”?° Did Andrew the apostle, moreover, want for the people’s favor, do you think, when the citizens of Achaia rioted to free him as he hung on the cross, and also tried to kill the provincial governor??? But to strengthen our contention by referring to the very chief of all the saints, unless he had withdrawn to the hills, the Jews were on the point of proclaiming our Redeemer king.
Letter 17
(10) But lest someone suspect that the holy evangelists are in disagreement in what they mean, as they seem to be in what they say, I will briefly explain. Mark asserts that at the third hour the Lord was crucified amid the shouts of the Jews, while the other evangelists report that at the sixth hour he was hung, with the nails put in place. At the third hour, indeed, they cried: “Crucify him! Crucify him!”?4 And so the Jews passed judgment of crucifixion, but afterwards the soldiers nailed and hung him on the cross. The ninth hour, moreover, is distinguished in its own right in that at that hour the Lord is described as having completed the mystery of his passion, and died.
Letter 19
(22) Who ever heard of such a thing, that a father, no matter how far removed, should arrange a marriage among his children, and should join in matrimony those who are related to one another by brothers of whom he is the father? You should now take note that although you are children of the Church, you injure your mother by introducing rites of the synagogue; and while professing to be Christians, you anticipate the heresy of Antichrist. For it is known that when Antichrist comes he will teach men to observe Jewish rites and to prefer the ceremonies of the old man to the new laws of the gospel dispensation.*” But you should not act in this way, and though the darkness of ignorance for a time surprised you, hasten back at once to the word of Sacred Scripture as a shining light, humbly divest yourself of the error of your opinion and as quickly as possible return to the road of correct understanding; that you who brandish the rod amid the multitude of pupils at school should not be ashamed to subject yourselves to ecclesiastical discipline; and that you, who as learned men argue cases in court, should be satisfied, as students, to listen to wisdom in the lecture hall of Christ. It is, indeed, an honorable thing for men who are accustomed to preside as judges in human affairs to appear unpretentious in mystical and spiritual cases. Wherefore, whoever you may be who wishes to reckon the degrees of relationship, do not add line to line lengthwise, as if you were joining warp to warp, but add persons descending in various lines in one count only; that is, you should not say that the four generations on this side and the four on that make eight generations, but rather that these persons are related to one another in the fourth degree.
Letter 28
(37) We can say the same of the feasts of St. James® and of St. Peter in Chains.® For since the Acts of the Apostles states: “And when Herod after beheading James the brother of John saw that this pleased the Jews, he decided to arrest Peter as well.”*6 And then it continues: “This was during the days of Unleavened Bread,” and it immediately adds, “And he put Peter in prison, assigning four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, meaning to try Peter in public after the end of Passover week,”®” there is no doubt that these things transpired at one time of the year, and that when the feast was celebrated it was assigned to another. For as you know, these feasts are observed near the end of July, and, to be sure, if you investigate the entire Old Testament, you will not find the Jewish people celebrating the days of Unleavened Bread at that time. But since these saints could not be venerated as they should during the solemnities of Easter, the Church found another time to celebrate their cultus.
Source. Archive.org – Translated by OWEN J. BLUM, O.F.M. PETER DAMIAN LETTERS 1-30. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, INC., Washington, D.C. 1989.
Letters 31-60
Letter 31
(18) Unquestionably, one who is not awakened by this aweful thunder of apostolic invective must be thought more likely to be dead than asleep. And since the Apostle makes such an effort to intensify the severe punishment of this sentence, and that, not for the faithful among the Jews, but for gentiles and for those ignorant of God, what, I ask, would he have said had he beheld this deadly wound reeking in the very body of the Holy Church? And especially, what grief, what fire of compassion would kindle his devout heart upon learning that this destructive plague was raging even among those in sacred orders? Listen, you do-nothing superiors of clerics and priests. Listen, and even though you feel sure of yourselves, tremble at the thought that you are partners in the guilt of others; those, I mean, who wink at the sins of their subjects that need correction and who by ill-considered silence allow them license to sin. Listen, I say, and be shrewd enough to understand that all of you alike “are deserving of death, that is, not only those who do such things, but also they who approve those who practice them.”
Letter 35
(3) He, therefore, is guilty of dishonoring God who, during a mortal bishop’s lifetime, under pressure of earthly fear, refrains from injuries to the Church, but who, after he is dead, pours out the bile of his hatred and the virus of his ill will which up to then he had suppressed, and that, to the detriment of Christ who is the Church’s immortal bridegroom. What if the bishop had injured someone during his lifetime? What sin has Christ committed, into whose care the Church has been entrusted? Therefore, if we are not to return evil for evil on him who has done harm, why do we not reverence the eternal high priest who repaid us with good things for the evil we have done? Surely, if the despoiler of the Church believed that the Son of God is truly the immortal bishop, if only he would bear in mind that he is everywhere present, knowing and controlling all things, he would not dare to commit such a wicked and sacrilegious crime before his very eyes. But truly in him is fulfilled what was said by the psalmist: “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.’ “‘? Moreover, if they who bestow their goods on the Church, by a happy exchange, obtain the remission of their sins, it follows that they who steal Church property with barbarian fury will fall into the abyss of eternal damnation. By a new and incomparable kind of crime they so surpass the perfidy of the Jews that they become more hateful still and exceed not only the wickedness of the gentiles, but also the depravity of heretics.”! Surely, these men once again crucify Christ and cruelly wound his body, which is the Church. This unlawful venture must therefore be curbed and this wicked aberration, prompted by the devil, must be restrained. This daring rape of the Church’s patrimony must be stopped, lest the sustenance of the poor be lost and the sacrifice already offered to God by the generosity of the faithful become the loot of brigands.
Letter 40
(68) What should I say when ecclesiastical authority seems to aid those who were ordained by the most outrageous heretics, and when, in publishing its decrees in this dispute, it considers not the long standing infidelity of the consecrators, but the new faith and change of heart of those who are promoted? But whoever takes the trouble to look carefully at the decrees of the popes, will not fail to notice that the same Pope Innocent, of whom we spoke a moment ago, gave permission for all who had been ordained by the heretic Bonosus before he was condemned, to remain in office if, after abandoning and denouncing his error, they were disposed to continue in union with the Church.? This same Bonosus, as we discover in the aforementioned decrees, was known to have been a Photinian. Now the Photinians denv that Christ was God, existing before all ages, born of the substance of the Father. These same people, since together with the Jews they do not hesitate to disavow the Son of God, share with them the same condemnation.*?$ Since, therefore, these men who not only allegedly were consecrated by such a pernicious heretic, but were also involved in his errors, were permitted to remain in the orders they had received, it is easy to decide how we should judge those who were promoted by simonists, but without the taint of simony.
(115) I lodge complaint against you simonists, who have caused me this grave inconvenience of burning the midnight oil. Indeed, I have defended your interests, but only that I might forever condemn you. Thus I admit the things that were done by you and show my judgment of how abominable you are and how worthy of the supreme punishment that befits the incorrigible. Judas, to be sure, believing the Lord to be a mere man, sold him; but at once he threw away the blood money as he prepared to pay the penalty that was his due.5* But you, with no doubt of the divinity of the Holy Spirit, ascribe to him the venal transaction and hold on to the benefits of this sacrilegious deed, and you, who should have been subjected to punishment, profit by the crime that you commit. To whom should I rightly compare you, who hold the gifts of God not for yourselves, but for others? That which amasses salvation for them is turned for you into judgment and eternal damnation. In my view, you are plainly like the Jews, who while at heart were unaware of Divine Law, everywhere in the world became bureaucrats to the Christian people. You almost seem to have the appearance of bees, which carry hard earned honey to sweeten the lips of men, but which grow weak from hunger and are soon destined to die. Therefore, you unfortunate and miserable men, consider to what utter depths of perdition you have fallen, where not only evil things are evil, but where for you also good becomes evil; in which blessing is turned into malediction, divine gifts into heresy, sacraments into sacrilege, honor into shame, and preferment into ruin. To this we may add that you are also responsible for as many souls as there are faithful subject to your prelacy. Enjoy your affluence now, in your pride gather your crowds of clients; soon you will see all the army of angels furiously enraged against you, the apostles, martyrs, and the hosts of all the saints in terrifying force against you, with one mind and with equal judgment concurring in the sentence of your damnation.
(116) Him, indeed, have you offended and consequently made hostile, the wronging of whom is forgiven neither here nor hereafter. By the frightfulness of your cruel and most detestable crime you are worse than adulterers, you exceed murderers, you surpass plunderers, the sacrilegious and incestuous, parricides, and the infamy of nearly all criminals. And still this is too little! For if the thing be seen as it is, the very perfidy of the Jews and all heretical depravity are in no wise equal to your excesses. For you, night has fallen at midday, the storm has come amid the calm;**8 the sky above has turned for you into iron, and the soil into bronze,??? for you do not rise because of the weight of evil resting upon you, and do not hide from men that which, in conscience, you have committed.
Letter 45
(4) Look at this foreign teaching, they say, look at this novel practice of penance never heard of before in all the ages past. If this thing is once allowed, if it is sanctioned and observed, all the sacred canons will surely be destroyed, the precepts of the ancient fathers will disappear, and, as the Jew said,’ the traditions of our fathers will be reduced to nothing. Such words, certainly, are totally foreign to the concept of charity and can be shown to stem from stupid and bestial madness. For according to the gospel, did not our Redeemer undergo scourging?’ Did not Paul five times receive forty lashes less one?? Were not all the apostles beaten? Did not the holy martyrs experience abuse and scourging?’? Did not Moses command in the Law that the guilty should be punished by being flogged?! Do we not read that St. Jerome and others were lashed at God’s command??? Will Almighty God refuse to accept a penance offered freely, when at times he demanded the same thing from those who suffered unwillingly?
Letter 48
(3) And so, my dear friends, you will observe that the whole world, prone to evil, rushes headlong to its ruin on the slippery paths of vice, and the closer it approaches its end, which is already at hand, the more it daily heaps upon itself the burden of still graver crimes. Discipline that should characterize the Church is everywhere neglected, proper reverence is not shown to bishops, the decrees of canon law are despised, and only earthly interests are eagerly promoted as being worthy of God. Moreover, the legal order in contracting marriages is thrown into disorder, and, what an impious thing it is, those who superficially cloak themselves with the title of Christians live indeed like Jews. Where do we not find plundering? Where are we secure against theft? Who have any fear of perjury, of pandering, or of sacrilege? Who finally are horrified at committing the most heinous crimes? At the same time we repudiate the practice of virtue, and a plague of every kind of perversity has broken out like a wild beast on the attack. But let me not appear the stilted actor proclaiming a tragedy; it will be enough for me to quote the words of the Apostle, for like prophecies his words came forth when he said, “You must face the fact: the final age of this world is to be a time of troubles. Men will love nothing but self and money; they will be arrogant, proud, and blasphemous; with no respect for parents, no gratitude, no piety, no natural affection; never at peace, scandalmongers, intemperate and fierce, strangers to all goodness, traitors, adventurers, swollen with self-importance. They will be men who put pleasure in the place of God, men who preserve the outward form of holiness, but are a standing denial of its reality.”
Letter 54
(3) But to pass over countless other items, why did he allow his head and his feet to be anointed* by the hands of a woman, if it had not been customary in Palestine and the region of Judaea for the inhabitants there to be frequently anointed?> And so he said, “But when you fast, anoint your head.”® And why should we wonder that during his life the Lord observed the custom of his homeland, since he did not ignore the sacred obsequies used at his burial? For as John relates, “Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus took the body of Jesus and wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen doth according to Jewish burial customs.”? Since, therefore, he who is wisdom itself, through whom all things were made, did not refuse to observe the traditions of men even in those things that seemed to have hardly any significance, how presumptuous it would be for one to break the rule of discipline which he knows was handed down by the holy fathers?
(12) As I write these things, I am reminded that Paul, as he wrote to the Galatians, rebuked his fellow apostle Peter.“ And yet, in his own mind, he agreed with him whom seemingly he reproved by disagreeing with him. “When Peter came to Antioch,” he said, “I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. For until a certain person came from James he was taking his meals with gentile Christians; but when they came, he drew back and began to hold aloof, because he was afraid of the advocates of circumcision.”*° And then he added, “The other Jewish Christians played along with his pretense, so that even Barnabas was carried away bv this false show.”** What harsh words these are on the surface, and if you take them only syllable by syllable, how completely foreign they are to the dignity of the head of the apostles. Is Peter blameworthy, he to whom all the kingdoms of the earth were committed for censure and correction?” [s he to be opposed to his face, when it is at his command that the gates of the kingdom of heaven are opened to Christ’s faithful? Is he to be called the model of pretence, when he is the first among the preachers of truth? And to heighten the injury still more, carefully note what follows: “But when I saw that their conduct did not square with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before the whole congregation, If you a Jew born and bred, live like a gentile, and not like a Jew, how can you insist that gentiles must live like Jews?
(14) But because Paul publicly reprimanded Blessed Peter in the presence of all, Peter appeared outwardly to be his opponent, yet in conscience he carried out his wishes.5! When those who had converted from the Jewish faith were present, Peter never dared to sit at table with gentile converts lest the be scandalized, and on that account promptly abantheir faith which was still immature. And so, he who was p stomed to cat with gentile Christians, left their company i certain persons came from James, fearing that if Jewish Christians should see him eating with gentiles, they might be :n danger of losing their faith. Now that in all of this Peter . reed with Paul, namely, that gentiles should not be comS ed to observe Jewish rites, there can be no doubt if one should read the Acts of the Apostles. l | (15) Moreover, it was undoubtedly Peter who is now accused by Paul of being some sort of transgressor, who first among all the apostles was the author of the following statement: “Why do you now provoke God by laying on the shoulders of these converts a yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear? No, we believe that it is by the race of the Lord Jesus that we are saved, and so are they.”5? And so Peter wished especially to be charged in the presence of all; he rejoiced at being embarrassed by disparaging invective, so that what he had done unwillingly he would refrain from doing after he had been rebuked, and that he find company in what he feared doing alone. Paul, therefore, when he opposed him was really in agreement with Peter and undoubtedly concurred with him in his heart while externally accusing him. Otherwise how could Paul condemn in another what he had done when faced with a similar necessity? For it was on account of Jewish Christians, who contended that the Law must be observed and the ancient rites maintained, that he circumcised Timothy, who was the son of a gentile. And he himself, fulfilling his vow, shaved his head and offered sacrifice according to the ceremonies of the ancient rite.
Letter 56
(6) Also the number three relates to the faith, because of the mystery of the blessed Trinity, while the number five, referring to our five senses, concerns its implementation. And since in sinning, everyone either errs in faith or fails in its execution, it was proper that Paul who had sinned in both regards, was beaten three times with rods and five times flogged with forty blows to achieve perfect expiation.!? In saying “less one,” the Jewish judges meant no doubt to lessen the number forty by one blow, so that by not coming up to the legal count, they would not go beyond the prescription of the law in his regard. And since they stayed on this side of that number, they would not go beyond it.
Letter 57
(3) Blessed be the divine will of the omnipotent Creator, that recently I visited you, weighed down with the burden of two episcopal sees,? one to govern and the other to visit, that I crossed over the rocky summits of the Alps, and then after putting down the troublesome burden, relieved and free, I retreated to my beloved solitude like a fugitive who had come home.® It would be pleasing, therefore, in something of a mental fancy, to move my feet after their long bruising in the stocks, to raise my neck weighed down with heavy chains, and joyfully to sing that prophetical refrain, “You undo my fetters, O Lord; I will offer you the thanksgiving sacrifice.”? You know, indeed, and are quite certain that these burdens were thrust upon me and not assumed; and, if I might put it so, I did not enter the net but was violently ensnared. Wherefore, given the proper occasion, I disposed of this weight to which previously I did not willingly submit. And since you are the Apostolic See, you are the Roman Church,’ it seems correct to me, in laying down and returning that which I am unable to bear, not to approach some building of stone but rather to appeal to those in whom the sacramental power of the Church resides. In the time of the Jewish persecution, wherever the apostles were, there too was the primitive Church. Now, however, as Simon, that ancient counterfeiter,!! restores his hammers and anvil, as he usurps the city of Rome as his workshop for his moniers engaged in nefarious traffic; wherever Peter flees, leading you with him, there, without doubt, he demonstrates to all that the Roman Church resides.!? Hence as I propose to abdicate ecclesiastical government into your hands, I have made no mistake when I restore to the Roman Church, which you are, what belonged to it. And that I may acknowledge that I pleaded guilty to you for this surrender, a hundred years of penance should consequently be imposed on me, using such remedies as were instituted by monastic regulation. But if this seems too light, you should also add to it, going so far, if it be your pleasure, as to chain me in prison. After such an aberration in roaming and harmful liberty, what remains but to compel me to submit to the censure of imprisonment and silence.
Source. Archive.org – Translated by OWEN J. BLUM, O.F.M. PETER DAMIAN LETTERS 31-60. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, INC., Washington, D.C. 1990.
Letters 61-90
Letter 66
(3) There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee and, as the evangelist reports, Jesus with his disciples had been invited? He went as a groomsman, not as the bridegroom; as one taking part in the feast, and not to be married. But this wedding so far surpasses all others in dignity in that here, Jesus is not considered a friend of the groom, but the bridegroom himself. And “since anyone who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him,”* this bridegroom is not only joined to his bride but united with her. This union does not beget corruption, but rather restores the integrity of virginity. In that former wedding, Jesus changed water into wine; but here the same Jesus makes of himself wine and food. He becomes food, because he is the living bread that came down from heaven; he is the wine that cheers the heart of man.? It is of his spirit that it is said again, “Your cup makes one drunk, how goodly it is!”® The spirit of God, indeed, inebriates the hearts of men so that, like strangers to themselves, they might disdain the riches of this world— honor and glory—that they might burn with ardent desire to undergo all that is harsh and burdensome for the sake of God. Those men were drunk with this new wine; the Jews, thinking them to be out of their minds and in a frenzy said, “They have been drinking too much new wine.”!? The man who belonged to the prophetic brotherhood, whom Elisha sent to anoit Jehu king, had also drunk of this new wine, and they who thought him crazy said to him, “Why did this madman come to you?”
Letter 68
(19) I think that it will also not be out of place to add something I often heard of his distinguished renown that flourished among the holy monks of that same monastery. They say that the marquis, of whom we have been speaking, appeared one night in a dream to the abbot Marinus?” who then presided over that monastery, and told him that, as was customary, he should turn over his body so that it lay on its back and not face downward as it now reposed. Believing what had been told him in the vision, and wishing to verify it, the abbot actually found the body of this good man lying on its face, as it had been revealed to him. He therefore turned it over, as was only proper, so that it lay on the other side. We should not be surprised that this man wished to observe the burial customs, just as the head of all the elect wished them to be carried out in his own regard. For John the evangelist says, “Joseph and Nicodemus took the body of Jesus and wrapped it, with the spices, ın strips of linen cloth according to Jewish burial customs.”
Letter 69
(23) It would be tedious if I were to explain how Gideon was a type of the savior. In his many wives we should understand the various nations which were associated by faith; by his seventy sons, the same number of people of differing language. For the concubine, we should read the synagogue, and in Abimelech we should see the Antichrist who will be a son of the synagogue.” And so in the Apocalypse this was said of those who were to believe in him: “They claim to be Jews but are not—they are Satan’s synagogue.”?! And just as Abimelech killed his seventy brothers,?? thus will Satan persecute all the nations that will not unite with him. And so, passing over those matters that would seem to require more extensive treatment that epistolary brevity will not suffer, let me shorten my explanation of the allegory, referring only to that which has bearing on the discussion I have begun.
Letter 88
(27) But lest anyone should perhaps object that Simeon and Levi, the murderers of Shechem, deserved to be cursed as the patriarch Jacob lay dying,” let him know that here the prophetic spirit is looking forward to the future death of the savior rather than properly condemning the previous slaughter of a passionate man. For the Jewish scribes are descendants of Simeon, while the high priests stem from the tribe of Levi. And of them it was written that they “conferred together on a scheme to have Jesus arrested by some trick and put to death.”?* Of this conference this was said: “My soul shall not enter their council, and my heart shall not join their company, for in their anger they killed a man,” he said, “and with their consent they undermined the wall,” namely, that man of whom Isaiah said, “Let us overwhelm this just man, for he is a hindrance to us at every turn.” They undermined the wall, that is, the powerful, spiritual fortress that stands as a bastion for Israel.
Letter 89
(56) Attorney for the Roman Church: Forget about prestige, and try to understand the truth! If you are afraid that I am setting snares for you, listen to Paul who was telling the truth about his fellow apostle Peter: “For until certain persons came from James,” he said, “he was taking his meals with gentile Christians; but when they came he drew back and began to hold aloof, because he was afraid of the advocates of circumcision.”’” And so, here we have Peter acting with discretion. Indeed, he feared that the Jews, because of the gentile Christians, might abandon the Christian faith, and so, that he might not lose the flock entrusted to him, he followed the example of the good shepherd. With the Jews he acted like a Jew?* that he might win over the Jews. For Christ came into the world endowed with sinful human nature that he might free man from sin, and he did not hesitate to abolish the Law of Moses. But he kept in mind that the brethren were still weak and improperly instructed, and so retained for a time the shadow of the Law that he might finally bring them to a perfect understanding of the full truth. In this case also, blessed Peter laid before us the norms of discretion, so that now and then, when it would not be harmful, we might deviate somewhat from the narrow path so as to be able to care for our weaker brothers.
(57) Imperial Counsel: While saying that Peter for a time upheld the Judaic Law, why do you not also tell us that in the same epistle we read that Paul opposed him to his face? “I opposed him to his face,” he said, “because he was clearly in the wrong.” And then he said to him, “If you, a Jew born and bred, live like a gentile, and not like a Jew, how can you insist that gentiles must live like Jews?”5? So, why did you mention the one situation and remain silent about the other?
(60) Attorney for the Roman Church: Don’t act like a child, my brother. Not so fast, but take one step at a time. Because of the gravity of the matter before us we must speak with moderation. Listen carefully as we now come to Paul who also shows us how to act with golden discretion, and is himself a model of compassionate dispensation. As the historical narrative found in the Acts of the Apostles relates, “Paul started on his journey and travelled through Syria and Cilicia, bringing new strength to the congregations. He went on to Derbe and to Lystra, and there he found a disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish Christian, his widowed mother, and a gentile father.”?! To shorten this account, the Apostle therefore circumcised him because he especially feared the Jewish Christians who lived in those areas. Why, therefore, did he circumcise a Christian who was not a Jew, who indeed had been uncircumcised because he was a gentile, except to practice discretion, so that Christian Jews would not be scandalized and apostatize from the faith? I also now recall that for a while, according to the rite of the Nazirites, Paul vowed to let his hair grow long;* after sailing for Syria, he had his hair cut off at Cenchreae according to the prescript of the Law. Luke, the author of this sacred history, also reports this: “When we reached Jerusalem,” he said, “the brotherhood welcomed us gladly,” and the next day James and all the elders who were with him, after approving his ministry, said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands of converts we have among the Jews, all of them staunch upholders of the Law. Now they have been given certain information about you: it is said that you teach all the Jews in the gentile world to turn their backs on Moses, telling them to give up circumcising their children and following our way of life. What is the position, then? A crowd is likely to gather, for they are sure to have heard that you have arrived. You must therefore do as we tell you. We have four men here who are under vow; take them with you and go through the ritual of purification with them, paying their expenses, after which they may shave their heads. Then everyone will know that there is nothing in the stories they were told about you, but that you are a practicing Jew and keep the Law yourself. So Paul took the men, and on the next day, after going through the ritual of purification with them, he went into the temple to give notice of the date when the period of purification would end and the offering be made for each one of them.”
(61) But why did Paul, in accord with the ceremonies of the Jews, shave his head, go barefoot, offer sacrifice, and, while destroying the Law, observe the precepts of the Law? Why, I ask, did he conform to all this, if not to avoid giving scandal to those who were converts from Judaism? He took on the appearance of one who was sick, that he might remove disease from those who were truly sick. He observed the ritual of the Law, of which he had said in his letter, “What formerly I considered assets, I now count as sheer loss, and because of Christ count as so much dung.”®t He circumcised a man, but still uttered this terrible statement: “I say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will do you no good at all.”*5 I ask you, what can be a greater sin than to abandon Christ, to violate the norms of the Christian religion, to introduce the rites of the Jewish Law, and to impugn the new grace that proceeds from the gospel? And yet we see the apostle Paul doing all these things superficially, so that he might not scandalize those who were still immature in understanding the rudiments of the new faith. And, if we look only to externals, we find that Cerinthus and Ebion® had done nothing worse than what Paul had done. For, while believing in Christ, they were anathematized by their parents only because they had blended the ceremonies of the Law with the gospel of Christ, and professed to believe the new so as not to alter the old. But notice that while saying that James and all the elders had given Paul their advice, the text means that all the disciples likewise carried out what Paul had done. One thing, at least, is to their credit: they were in harmony— both he who did this thing, and those who had advised that it be done.
(62) Therefore, if these rulers of the world, whose laws are obeyed not only by earthly kingdoms but by all the highest heavens, did not hesitate to condescend to only a few men of their time in this perilous situation, why are we, truly insignificant men, who centuries later follow in their footsteps, not permitted to come to the assistance of countless numbers of men in the city of Rome? But why do we speak of the apostles and their solicitude not to scandalize the weak and the recent converts, when their Lord and Master himself, to whose rule all the ages are subject, avoided giving scandal to the Jews as an example for our imitation? “What do you think of this, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do earthly monarchs collect tax? From their own people, or from aliens?” When he answered, “From aliens,” he promptly continued, “Why, then, their own people are exempt! But as we do not wish to scandalize them, go and cast a line in the lake; take the first fish that comes to the hook, open its mouth, and you will find a silver coin; take that and pay it in; it will meet the tax for us both.”®’ And so, if Peter does not satisfy as a model for your action, then consider Paul if you would learn how rigid morality is to be softened and the virtue of discretion should be practiced. But if neither suffices for your bold obstinacy, be ashamed of yourself for trying to be holier than Jesus as you engage in your absurd chatter: “For Christ is the end of the Law as a way to justice for every one who has faith.”
(72) And now, let me review the entire history of this unheard-of calamity of ours. Stephen, a cardinal priest of the Apostolic See, a man renowned for his serious and upright character and, as is well known, outstanding by reason of his many virtues, was sent to the royal court bearing letters from the pope, but failed to be received by the royal officials. He was forced to wait outside the court for almost five days, an action that was an affront to blessed Peter and to the Apostolic See. As a man of dignity and patience, he calmly bore this insult, but as a result was unable to carry out the mission entrusted to him.! He brought back the confidential instructions signed by the principals unopened; he was the bearer because the blameworthy indiscretion of the court did not permit them to be presented to the emperor. Indeed, in this unexpected audacity there is so much room for debate that it might well tax the eloquence of Demosthenes and exceed the vast ability of Cicero. Wherefore, if we should wish to be most precise in pursuing the matter of the injury we suffered, we might rightly allege that you have deprived yourselves of the privilege over the Roman Church,!” since, as a result of your indiscretion, you have done her harm. He indeed violates the bonds of friendship who gratuitously attacks his friend and causes him harm. For the Lord himself said to the Jews in the words of Jeremiah, “And I will make a new covenant with Israel and Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers, a covenant they broke.”!°* Therefore, he who is first to violate his oath of friendship renders null and void the agreement by which a grant was bestowed. Nevertheless, the Roman Church does not wish to exaggerate what it has had to bear, but desires that what it liberally granted to his royal highness should continue to function.
Letter 90
(3) Now the name “Absalom” may be said to mean ‘a father’s peace.’ In him we see the Jewish people who hounded Christ to death. And Isaiah said of this people, “I have sons whom I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.” They are properly called the father’s peace, because we observe God peacefully residing in a special way among this people by the Law he gave them, through the sacrifices they offered, and lastly in their tabernacle or temple. As David said, “In Judah God is known, his name is great in Israel.”’® And that you might be aware that this people was the father’s peace, listen to what follows: “His tent is pitched in peace.”
(5) What is meant by David’s ten concubines if not that part of the Jewish people that did not follow the true Christ, namely David fleeing into the wilderness of the gentiles, because they boasted of having the Ten Commandments? Indeed, the number of concubines refers to the number of the Commandments. And these concubines, who did not follow David but stayed behind keeping the palace,?* are those who persisted in the observance of the Old Law. And so Absalom lay with David’s concubines, because the devil who was in Absalom commits fornication together with the likes of him because of his excessive crimes.?* And it is rightly said that David left them behind in charge of the palace. Indeed, by the provident decision of our redeemer it was God’s doing that a remnant of the Jews were left in charge of the palace of the Law, that they might, as it were, be our custodians of the records,?® and carry with them throughout the world the books of heavenly wisdom in the same language in which they had been written, so that those very people who are opposed to us might remove all ambiguity for us if some obstacle of doubt should arise. To this point the psalmist said, “My God, show me the good things that are in my enemies; do not kill them lest they forget your Law.”?e Clearly, the Hebrew language that spread throughout the world is of great service to the credibility of the Christian faith. For unless that evidence were at hand, what was written by Christians might almost be construed as fiction; but with that proof in existence, all doubt is at once removed. Hence, the psalm rightly continues, “Scatter them by your might,”?? just as if the Son were to say to the Father, Disperse the survivors of the Jewish people and scatter them throughout the whole world, that from their ancient books they might bear witness to the truth of the new faith.
(11) “And when King David came home to Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines whom he had left in charge of the palace, and put them under guard, and did not have intercourse with them, but kept them in confinement to the day of their death, where they lived as widows.”? The concubines who did not go with David but stayed at home are those who continue the practices of the Old Law. Of these concubines it is rightly said, “David did not have intercourse with them, but they were kept in confinement to the day of their death, where they lived as widows.”? The Jews are indeed now in confinement and live as widows, because they do not go near their husband, who is the Holy Church. Nor does the heavenly spouse approach them, because he refuses to dwell with them as women made prostitutes by the devil, and gives them a note of dismissal because they were defiled by adultery. And those who do not go with their husband are aptly called concubines and not wives, because since they are utterly unworthy of betrothal and marriage, they do not bear children who will receive the inheritance of their father’s blessing. But to us, on the other hand, he says, “You have been called that you might receive a blessing for your inheritance.”®! And the apostle Paul here says the same: “Therefore, it is men of faith who share the blessing with faithful Abraham. On the other hand, those who rely on obedience to the Law are under a curse.”
Source. Archive.org – Translated by OWEN J. BLUM, O.F.M. PETER DAMIAN LETTERS 61-90. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, INC., Washington, D.C. 1992.
Letters 91-120
Letter 110
(23) And how in good conscience can we be remiss in giving alms, since we enjoy peace and quiet within the Church, and since we read that the apostles, who were seemingly arrayed in battle against the whole world, were so eager to practice this virtue? For if others might do so, they could not readily be freed from such concerns, as they were so intent on sowing the seed of the new faith, and found themselves engaged in such a bitter fight against the world’s unbelief. But no hardship or persecution could restrain them from showing human kindness to their brothers, no urgency to engage in preaching could keep them from giving aid to the poor. And so Paul said to the Galatians, “Those reputed pillars of our society, Peter, James, and John, accepted Barnabas and myself as partners, and shook hands upon it, agreeing that we should bring the Gospel to the Gentiles while they went to the Jews. All they asked was that we should keep their poor in mind, which was the very thing Imade it my business to do.” And this, moreover, he said to the Corinthians, “And now about the collection in aid of God’s people: you should follow my directions to our congregation in Galatia. Every Sunday each of you is to put aside and keep by him a sum that he sees fit. When I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to persons approved by you, and send them to carry your gift to Jerusalem”? Such was the apostles’ generosity to the poor, that we read in their Acts, “They broke bread outside the homes, and shared their meals with unaffected joy, praising God in the simplicity of their hearts.” It says outside and not within the homes. Their example is not followed by those who when preparing to eat, lock and bolt the doors, secure them with bars, and thus protect themselves from the poor, as they would from besieging enemies whose forces are all around them.
Letter 113
(11) Now Adonibezek may be interpreted to mean “the Lord of lightning,” or “the Lord content with vanity”? As soon as lightning flashes, it suddenly lets up. In this we can see the Jewish people who flashed like lightning when they said, “All that the Lord has commanded us we will listen to and obey”? But once this light had ceased, they prostrated before the demons of darkness. And in saying that the Lord was content with vanity, the reference was to the gentiles, who were satisfied with idols they could see, and did not bother returning to the mercy of the Creator. And while they were ignorant of the true worship, they kept on performing ceremonies to idols. Of them the Apostle says, “They did not honor God, or render him thanks, but all their thinking has ended in futility”? And so, Adonibezek, that is, the reprobate spirit of evil, was the Lord of the majority of these two peoples, because the former flashed like lightning and then faded away, while the latter, satisfied with the vain veneration of demons, did not seek for help from their Creator.
Letter 114
(8) Therefore, act at once, be the heroine of the Lord, and like Deborah together with Barak, that is allied with the bishops, hound Sisera to his death. And as Heber’s wife, Jael, placed the tent-peg on the skull of Sisera, struck it with a hammer, and pierced both temples,” you too must pierce the head of the devil with the sign of the cross, and destroy the source of all impurity, who prevents clerics from participating in the joys of heaven. Such a victory greatly pleases God, who at times uses women to achieve a more glorious triumph. As Holophernes sprawled on his bed, bedecked with purple and gold, Judith, the very model of a widow’s continence, armed with determination more powerful than any weapon, daringly used the sword to cut off his head as he lay there in a drunken stupor.? To be worthy of receiving this strength from God, she had previously censured the diffident and fearful priest, Ozias, who had given God a timelimit of five days, and upbraided him sharply as he deserved, saying to him, “This is not the way to speak if one is to win God’s mercy; itis rather adapted to arouse his anger and make him furious. Who are you to test the mercy of the Lord and impose conditions on him to suit yourself?” ° Esther, who bravely risked her life to save her people, caused Haman to be hanged because he thirsted for the blood of the Jews.” The wise woman who lived in Abel, threw the severed head of Sheba, son of Bichri, to Joab, who was in command of the army, and thus saved the city from the impending danger of siege.” Another woman in Thebez threw a fragment of a millstone from the battlement of the tower, and crushed the head and brain of the brave Abimelech who was attacking the castle.? Abigail, the wife of Nabal, removed from his house the deadly destruction, while she offered a gift to the raging David, so that he disregarded the stupidity of her husband.
Letter 115
(3) Therefore, the birthday of blessed John is not only celebrated in its own right, but its octave is also highly esteemed. Hence, right reason demands that, like the birthday, also its octave should be held in honor, by which the birth is made famous, and from which we understand how distinguished and special an event it is. Indeed, from its octave his venerable birthday receives the distinction of surpassing the birthdays of all other saints. And so, it deserves no lesser honor than that shown to the feast itself. No wonder, then, that every principal and outstanding feast of the Church is prolonged throughout eight days,? since we read that in the Old Law the Lord established eight especially solemn days to be celebrated each year.” These festivities, then, are commonly observed both by us and by the Jews, but at different times. For them, they were held as rites of the flesh; but for us, through spiritual insight they represent a mystery.
(7) The third festival is the first day of the month, that is, the feast of the New Moon.” Now the moon is said to be new when it comes near the sun, and from it again receives its splendor after its light has dimmed. The sun of justice is Christ,” but primarily, the moon is the holy, universal Church, secondarily, every faithful soul, illumined by the rays of him who is the effulgence of God’s splendor and the stamp of God’s very being.” Therefore, when any holy soul is truly joined in love with its Redeemer, when at length it is united with him as in a bridal chamber by the bond of intimate delight, then without doubt one celebrates the feast of the New Moon, as he shows himself to the view of his brethren, transformed by heavenly light, as the Apostle says, “He who links himself with the Lord is one with him, spiritually.”? For if in all this only the external ritual of feasts is observed, it would seem that nothing useful would emerge for us, but the outcome would rather be judged superstitious and frivolous. This is why the Apostle says, “Allow no one to take you to task about what you eat or drink, or over the observance of a festival, New Moon, or Sabbath. These are no more than a shadow of what is to come”? And so, what at that time was a shadow of things to come for the Jews, is now a display of things present for the Christian; and what was given to them in the guise of external ceremonies, becomes for us a means of spiritual understanding. We truly observe the New Moon at its rise when we put aside our former self and replace it with a holy life that is completely new.
(11) After this they also observed another feast which was celebrated on the tenth day of the seventh month,? on which the Jews were required to mortify their spirit. We also rightly observe this solemnity when we chastise our flesh by fasting, when we curb ourselves by the practice of strict discipline, when we crucify the wanton urgings of carnal desires, when for God’s sake we waste our body by work and hardship, when we immolate the inner man by the lament of compunction and tears. As we celebrate this feast in such fashion, he it is who again expiates for us, he whom God designed to be the means of expiating sin by his blood, effective through faith.”
(12) The eighth and last solemnity is called scenopegia, that is, the feast of Tabernacles, the celebration of which begins on the fifteenth day of the same seventh month. For God rejoices in you when he sees you as a pilgrim and stranger, living not in the homes of your own land, but in tents and in exile. *For here we have no permanent home, but we are seekers after the city which is to come.” In fact, when we are seen living in this world because of our bodily form, we actually dwell in heaven by directing our mind to that purpose; when like travelers and aliens we pass over all present things by looking down on them, and with eagerness hasten our anxious steps toward the homeland that is above; then we are spiritually celebrating the feast of Tabernacles, which long ago was physically observed among the Jews with appropriate rites and ceremonies. This feast, moreover, begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and since it was observed for eight days, it undoubtedly came to an end on the tenth day before the kalends of October (22 September). For it is said in the book of Numbers, “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month which shall be holy and venerable among you, you shall not do your daily work, but shall keep a pilgrim-feast to the Lord for seven days.”? And somewhat further on it continues, “The eighth day which is observed in a solemn way, you shall not do your daily work on it.”
Letter 118
(22) Indeed, the authority of the canons is the last word, and in general it orders all vigils of the apostles to be celebrated.” But if my opponent should still stubbornly insist on his point of view, I will also observe that, if this feast is rightly deprived of its dignity because the time of celebration was changed, then the great feast of Easter should not be observed, since it does not occur at an exact and certain time, but rather follows the rule of the full moon. For it is the belief of the Church that our Redeemer was crucified on the twenty-fifth of March, the same day on which he was earlier conceived in the womb of the Virgin.” But if we should wish to follow this temporal line of reasoning, we should celebrate the Lord’s resurrection each year on the twenty-seventh of the same month. But this is actually not done, because it was seen fit first to pass through the fourteenth day of the new moon together with the Passover of the Jews (azymitae), that we might arrive at the new Passover, just as if we were leaving the shadow of the Law and entering the true light of grace.
Source. Archive.org – Translated by OWEN J. BLUM, O.F.M. PETER DAMIAN LETTERS 91-120. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, INC., Washington, D.C. 1998.
Letters 121-150
Letter 124
(5) Therefore, let the temple of your breast grow now through silence, let the edifice of spiritual virtues rise up in you as if made of celestial stones, where the heavenly bridegroom, whom you love with all your heart, shall rest delightedly just as if on his marriage bed. Remember then what the Apostle says, that “another foundation no one can lay but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. If any one has placed upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stalks, of whatever sort it shall be, fire will reveal it.”” What must one understand by gold, silver, and precious stones if not the strength and Jewels of the virtues? What else but the weakness of vices is indicated by the wood, hay, and stalks? Make certain, then, that the edifice that is in you be not made from weak material, which can be subject to the flames, and which will be dashed by the blowing force of the wind. Plainly, a voracious flame easily can consume wood, hay, and stalks whereas gold, silver, or precious stones do not know how to submit to fire. And certainly the same Apostle says, “Taking the shield of faith, in which you may be able to extinguish all the worst fiery darts.” Let the fire, then, which the hidden enemy sends, find the precious metals of the virtues in you, not the stalks and kindling of the vices. Let not a weak and rotten material fall meekly to the raging flames, which the cunning ambusher blows at you, but let the rigor of an impenetrable and robust solidity stand against him, so that the power of the Most High, which overshadowed? the virginal womb, may also guard your mind in the perpetual verdure of vernant modesty, and not—may it be avoided!—allow it to be burned by vapors of spiritual wickedness.
Letter 126
(8) Nor is he said improperly to be from the Bethlehemites, since David took his origin from Naomi and Ruth and they had come from Bethelehem during a time of famine,” and they later returned to this same Bethlehem when it was flourishing with abundance. The following passages declare that without doubt David was himself this same Adeodatus, with all the others added to them, when it is said, “These four were born of Arapha in Gath, and they fell to the hands of David and his servants.”?! Of course I could explain what this signifies mystically, except that it is clear that the brevity due a letter prevents me. Yet all these refer to Christ, according to a mystical understanding. For he himself is that “given by God,” of whom it is said in Isaiah, “A child is born to us, a son is given us.”? Not incongruously is he called a son of the woodland, seeing that he deigned to be born according to the flesh of the Jews, who bore no fruit of a spiritual seed, just as wild trees that are not planted in a garden but arise in the woodland have come forth sterile. Thus one reads, “A voice crying out in the desert,”? that is, among the unfruitful Jewish people.
(14) You ask that this passage in Isaiah also be explained for you: “I struck him on account of the sins of my people and gave a wicked man for a burial-place and a rich man for his death.” It is, as it seems to us, to be understood this way. The Father almighty struck down the Son on account of the sins of his people because he determined that he must suffer the gibbet of the Cross in order to remove our sins. The Son was handed over by the Father for this purpose, that the slave become free. Just as the Apostle says, “Who did not spare his Son, but handed him over for all of us.”** The innocent one was beaten with blows for this reason, so that the sinner, healed from the blackness of his wounds, might rejoice. Just as the same Isaiah says, “He was himself pierced for our iniquities, crushed for our crimes, by his stripes we are healed.”^ But our Redeemer deigned to suffer on account of two peoples, namely, for the Gentile and Jewish peoples. One of these is called wicked, whereas the other is rightly said to be rich. And indeed the Gentile people was the wicked, because while serving idols it had neglected the piety of divine service. In Greek, this piety is called theosebia. The Jewish people was truly the rich one, because when it received the sabbath, circumcision, the new moon, and all the rituals of the divine law, it overflowed with abundant riches as if from a heavenly treasure house. Paul rejoiced that the recently converted Corinthians abounded with these riches when he says, “I give thanks to my God always for you in the grace of God, which is given you in Christ Jesus, that in all things you are made rich in him, in all utterance and in all knowledge, so much so that nothing is wanting to you in any grace.” Therefore, our Savior, by the death that he took upon himself, revived the two peoples of the Father from death, namely, the Gentile people who previously had wickedly served demons, and the Jewish people who, although cleaving to the letter that kills and unaware of the vivifying spiri,” nevertheless possessed the riches of the divine law.
(19) Therefore, our Redeemer, although he is one and the same, now is a David, and then will be a Solomon, because he does not cease to fight against the devil through his members just as if with a strong hand, and then certainly he will not cease to fight against the senseless controversies of the spirit and of all flesh with his body, which is the Church, so that truly he will reign peacefully in eternal tranquility. Now, as if another David, he is oppressed by the burdens of calamities among his elect, is driven by the pressures of various persecutions and adversities, is weakened by tribulations and troubles, whereas later just like another Solomon he will obtain the extraordinary abundance of immortal riches. Now David, fleeing from before Absalom, leaves behind in his house ten concubines whom Absalom wickedly defiles in incest,” because our Redeemer, when cast out from the Jewish city, hastens to the desert places of the Gentiles, and leaves the Jews behind in the house of the Law, not marching along manfully but living in a womanly manner. Not inappropriately, the ten concubines indicate the Jews, because while they meekly guard the Decalogue of the Law they do not deserve to reach the chaste bed of marriage but rather, banding together without the ring of faith, they choose a union with concubines. Wantonly Absalom corrupted them, because an evil spirit corrupts the reprobate souls of the wicked just as if prostituting them. It is written of them that later David “went not to them, but they were shut up until the day of their death living in widowhood.” They lost the man concerning whom the prophet Isaiah says, “seven women received one man.”* Solomon says about them that they are seven hundred queens.?’ And the seven received the one whom the ten lost. The Holy Church, filled with the sevenfold gift of the Spirit, has united with the heavenly bridegroom. The synagogue, which received the Decalogue, lost this bridegroom and remained a widow because, while it has stood unmovable in the home of customary ritual and legal ceremonies, it refused to go out into the desert places of the Gentiles with king David.
Letter 141
(3) And stüll, like David dribbling down his beard in the presence of Achish King of Gath,! I would prefer being called a lunatic, and like Jesus, as Mark asserts,” to be thought a lunatic by the Jews, rather than fearing the stigma of ignorance, to be condemned for remaining silent at the judgment of a majestic God, saying with Isaiah, “Woe is me for having held my peace, for I am a man of unclean lips.”? And again, “Divine folly is wiser than the wisdom of men.”* And as the same Apostle says, “Since the world failed to know God by its own wisdom, God chose to save by the folly of the Gospel those who have faith.”° For this is what Samson typified when he marvelously slew a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.° Now Samson, whose name means “their sun,”’ is Christ, who by using the jawbone of an ass, namely, a dumb and unassuming animal, slew many when by the lips of fishermen and simple folk he destroyed the stubborn pride of the human race, so that he who had come to fight against the spiritual powers of the air? would win his triumph, not with orators and philosophers, but with the help of meek and inexperienced men.
Letter 146
(18) And if I, moreover, should speak to my fellow sinners and take a meal with them, I am at once subjected to abuse, ripped to pieces, and like them, made to suffer the same condemnation. What is more, we monks, we, I say, are the very ones who are thought unworthy of talking with them. This is hardly conduct befitting a monk, but is rather one of the irrational practices of the Pharisees. “The Pharisees and the doctors of the Law,” said the evangelist, “began grumbling among themselves: “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”*! And this is the root, the sum total of the matter over which the wild fury and ill will of the Jews flared up against the Lord, the source of the malice and venomous bitterness with which they conspired to kill him. Because they considered themselves the guardians of legal ceremonies, they accused the Lord of being a friend of publicans and the violator of the Sabbath.
Source. Archive.org – Translated by OWEN J. BLUM, O.F.M. PETER DAMIAN LETTERS 121-150. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, INC., Washington, D.C. 2004.
Letters 151-180
Letter 159
(4) Who doubts that Paul clearly came from the tribe of Benjamin? Moreover, in the Hebrew language Benjamin is called, in Latin, the “son of the right hand.”? Why is it remarkable, then, if the one who draws the name “of the right hand” from paternal right is placed on the right? For in truth, so that the old history be seen to accord clearly with blessed Paul, Scripture says, not without reason, that “when Rachel’s soul was departing, for pain and death were now at hand, she called the name of her son Benoni, that is, the son of my pain. But his father called him Benjamin, that is, the son of the right hand.”? For through Rachel, who is called a “ewe” or “the first to see,”* the Church is indicated, not undeservedly. For assuredly she both lives innocently like a ewe and burns in her inmost soul, through a devotion to contemplation, to see the appearance of her Redeemer? It was he who said to the Jews demanding to know about him: “I am the beginning, who also speak to you.”? The mother Rachel died therefore as Benjamin was born, while as Saul approached the light of regeneration, he cruelly assailed the Church with persecutions. For just as Luke said in the Acts of the Apostles: “Saul made havoc of the church; entering houses, and dragging away men and women, he delivered them to prison.”” Rachel called him appropriately, then, “Benoni, that is, the son of my pain,” whom Jacob named *Benjamin, that is, the son of the right hand,”? because Paul, who was the pain of Mother Church, who slew her by attacking her in some manner as she was born, is called the son of the right hand by God the Father when divine power, as if through his strong right hand, contended against the Gentiles through him, violently hurled back verbal darts, endured the salubrious wounds of the heart, and triumphed through him with glory once the enemies had been conquered and laid low. This is the reason that this same Paul said to the Galatians: “When it pleased him, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles, at that time I did not find peace in flesh and blood.”
Letter 163
(3) Moreover, if once he reproached [the Jews] for not receiving the servants he sent to them, how much more terrible will be his indictment of us, since he came himself? If he upbraided them for interrupting his sleep, how much greater will be his charge against us, since he died and was buried for us? Because they despised his servants who were sent to them, God did not deliver the Jews who were confined by the siege of encircling armies. And how will he listen to Christians who turned their back on the precepts of the Gospel sent by his Son? For he who does not listen to God, will not be heard by God. There is one thing to which the mind of any member of the faithful must give diligent and full attention, and must always carefully question, namely, whether his actions are pleasing to God, and whether God is satisfied with his life and works. For, to what avail is anything that a person achieves, if it is not acceptable to God? And so David says: “The Lord has sought a man after his own heart.” Accordingly, if the Creator is not now pleased with a man, that man will afterwards be unable to delight in his Creator.
Letter 165
(38) But there is a difference between these monks, decked out in festive clothes, and the hypocrites of whom the Gospel speaks, since the latter, as Truth itself asserts, “came to us dressed up as sheep, while underneath they are savage wolves”;*o the former, however, are inwardly bloated with the wind of vain glory, which they pass with utter abandon, but outwardly wear clothes they have plundered, as I have already demonstrated, and in so doing, arrogantly appear dressed up as wolves. Therefore, since the Lord said to the Jews concerning John: *What did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft garments? Surely you must look in palaces for that,”>’ obviously the monk who makes a display of his costly clothes, does not bear arms for the heavenly King, but is engaged in the service of this world; and even though externally he seems to offer God the tribute of his obedience, it becomes evident that by seeking to win human applause, he is devoted to his own aggrandizement. Moreover, if under the pretext of obedience elegant attire is allowed, to whom could this permission be more freely granted than to blessed John, who after being endowed with special dedication to God’s will, came with a new message to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and to prepare a well-disposed people for Christ the Lord??? Could the Lord not have provided sandals for himself, as the wicked pagans divided only his garments among themselves? For if his sandals had not been lacking, the account of sacred history would not have kept silent about them.
(71) And so, the Law was unable to revive us from sin and death, but by the gentle breath of grace God lovingly brought us back to life. And the servant with the staff could not restore the dead child because, as Paul asserts: “The Law brought nothing to perfection.”? But the prophet himself came, humbly stretched himself out upon the dead body, and placed his limbs on a level with those of the deceased, “for although he was in the form of God, yet he did not think to snatch at equality with God, but made himself nothing, assuming the nature of a slave. Bearing the human form, he was born in the likeness of men.”!? He walked up and down, because he was calling the Jews, who were close at hand, and the Gentiles, who were far away. He breathed seven times upon the dead boy, because the sevenfold grace of the Spirit!!* enkindles those who lie dead in their sin to receive the divine gift. And at once the boy was alive and sat up, because he whom the rod of terror was unable to revive, came back to life through the spirit of love.
Source. Archive.org – Translated by OWEN J. BLUM, O.F.M. and IRVEN M. RESNICK. PETER DAMIAN LETTERS 151-180. THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, INC., Washington, D.C. 2005.