Selections of St. Quodvultdeus of Carthage’s Writings on the Jews

St. Quodvultdeus (c. 380/390–c. 454 AD) was the Bishop of Carthage, a younger contemporary and friend of St. Augustine of Hippo, with whom he corresponded (see Ep. CCXXI and CCXXIII in the Augustinian corpus). He served as deacon from 421 and was consecrated bishop around 437–439 AD. When the Arian Vandals under Geiseric sacked Carthage in 439, Quodvultdeus was expelled and died in exile in Naples. His name means “What God wills.” None of his writings were transmitted under his own name in the manuscript tradition; they circulated in Augustinian collections and were identified as his only in the twentieth century through the work of Germain Morin (1914) and Desiderius Franses (1920). The authoritative modern critical edition is René Braun’s Opera Quodvultdeo Carthaginiensi Episcopo Tributa, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina (CCL) 60 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1976).

The two works most relevant to the present selection are: (1) the Tractatus Adversus Quinque Hæreses (“Treatise against the Five Heresies”), listed in the Patrologia Latina (PL) as Appendix to Augustine, PL 42, cols. 1101–1116; and (2) the Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos (“Sermon against the Jews, Pagans, and Arians,” also called the Sermo de Symbolo), PL 42, cols. 1117–1130. The Sermo contra Judæos is the single most systematic adversus Judæos homily from fifth-century Latin Africa, and was universally read as a Christmas matins lesson throughout the medieval West. The Latin text below is taken from the Migne PL 42 edition (Paris, 1865), the text of which reproduces the Maurist critical apparatus; obvious OCR errors in the Google digitisation have been silently corrected against context.

I. Tractatus Adversus Quinque Hæreses (PL 42, cols. 1101–1116)

Treatise against the Five Heresies

The Adversus Quinque Hæreses opens by cataloguing the five classes of enemies of the Church — Pagans, Jews, Manicheans, Sabellians, and Arians — and proceeds systematically against each. The sections against the Jews are concentrated in Chapter I (the Jewish objection stated) and Chapter IV (Old Testament testimonies deployed against Jewish unbelief).

I. On the Jewish Objection: Christ Was Crucified as a Mere Man

Caput I, § 2 — col. 1101

“Judæi dicunt, Quomodo unum colitis Deum, quando et hominem quem patres nostri crucifixerunt Dominum dicentes, hominibus extorquetis ut tanquam Filium Dei vobiscum venerentur et colant?”

“The Jews say: How do you worship one God, when you force upon men that same one whom our fathers crucified — calling him Lord — so that they should reverence and worship him together with you as the Son of God?”

PL 42, col. 1101 — Adversus Quinque Hæreses, Caput I, § 2

II. On the Jews as Inferior to Demons in Recognising the Saviour

Caput IV, § 5 — col. 1103

“Quid dicit Judæus? Unus est nobis Deus, præter ipsum non alium novimus. Illum vero quem dicitis Christum, patres nostri non Deum, sed hominem occiderunt. Nempe hoc est quod dixi: Utinam quomodo dæmones judicem, sic homines agnoscerent salvatorem! Ecce dæmones viderunt, et tremuerunt: homines viderunt, et occiderunt. Dæmones confessi sunt: homines persecuti sunt. Quæ infelicitas est et quanta miseria, imparem etiam dæmonibus inveniri?”

“What does the Jew say? We know one God; besides him we know no other. But that one whom you call Christ, our fathers killed not as God, but as a man. Behold, this is exactly what I said: Would that men recognised the Saviour in the same way that demons recognise the Judge! For the demons saw him and trembled; men saw him and killed him. The demons confessed him; men persecuted him. What an unhappiness it is, and how great a wretchedness, to be found inferior even to demons!”

PL 42, col. 1103 — Adversus Quinque Hæreses, Caput IV, § 5

III. On the Spiritual Blindness Signified by the Figure of Joshua — The Furious Nation of the Jews

Caput IV, § 5 — col. 1105

“In eo quod Jesus vidit nec cognovit, furiosam gentem Judæorum significabat, quæ si videns cognovisset, nunquam Dominum gloriæ crucifixisset.”

“In the fact that Joshua saw and yet did not recognise [the Lord], he signified the furious nation of the Jews, who, had they truly known while they saw, would never have crucified the Lord of Glory.”

PL 42, col. 1105 — Adversus Quinque Hæreses, Caput IV, § 5

(The apostolic authority invoked here is 1 Cor. 2:8: “Which none of the princes of this world knew: for if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory.”)

IV. On the Jews as Blind: As Lot Saw Angels and Understood God, So the Jews Neither See Nor Understand

Caput IV, § 5 — col. 1104

“Videte hominem videntem, non cæcum, sicut Judæi et Sabelliani; non lippientem, sicut Ariani: sed oculos sanos habentem, sicut catholici Christiani. Angelos vidit, et Dominum intellexit.”

“Behold a man who truly sees — not blind, as the Jews and Sabellians are; not bleary-eyed, as the Arians are — but having sound eyes, as Catholic Christians have. He saw angels, and understood the Lord.”

PL 42, col. 1104 — Adversus Quinque Hæreses, Caput IV, § 5

V. On the Confusion That Awaits All Enemies of the Son of God — Jews Explicitly Named

Caput IV, § 5 — col. 1107

“Ite nunc, omnes, Pagani, Hæretici, Judæi; adversamini, et repugnate Filio Dei: ad eum venietis, et confundemini omnes qui repugnatis ei.”

“Go now, all of you — Pagans, Heretics, Jews — set yourselves against and fight against the Son of God: to him you shall come, and all who fight against him shall be confounded.”

PL 42, col. 1107 — Adversus Quinque Hæreses, Caput IV, § 5

II. Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos (PL 42, cols. 1117–1130)

Sermon against the Jews, Pagans, and Arians (also: Sermon on the Creed)

The Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos is Quodvultdeus’s most concentrated work of anti-Jewish polemic. Structured as a creedal catechesis for candidates approaching baptism, it calls a procession of prophetic witnesses — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, David, Moses, Simeon, John the Baptist, Virgil, the Sibyl, Nebuchadnezzar — and deploys their testimonies against Jewish denial of Christ. Its Chapters X through XVIII are the most theologically dense in the adversus Judæos tradition of Latin Africa, treating Jewish betrayal of the Infant Christ to Herod, Jewish spiritual blindness, deicide, the diaspora, and the role of the dispersed Jews as witless torchbearers of the Law for the Gentiles. The work was read as a Christmas matins lesson throughout the medieval West.

VI. On the Jews’ Betrayal of the Infant Christ to Herod

Caput X — col. 1122

“Judæi nolentes habere Dei Filium regem, ubi Christus nasceretur Herodi produnt, atque de unius infantis nece utrorumque voluntas astringitur.”

“The Jews, being unwilling to have the Son of God as their King, betray to Herod the place where Christ was to be born; and the will of both parties is bound together in the murder of a single Infant.”

PL 42, col. 1122 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput X

VII. On the Jews Who Refused to Acknowledge the Infant Christ and Thereby Lost Their Own Children

Caput X — col. 1123

“Ipsos, ipsos conveniam Judæos, qui dum infantem Christum noluerunt agnoscere, filios suos cum illo compulsi sunt amittere: quos quidem occidit mortique propinavit Herodes vester amicus; sed his mortalitati æternamque vitam donavit Christus, quem vestrum etiam nunc dicitis inimicum.”

“These very ones — these very Jews — I shall address: who, while they refused to acknowledge the infant Christ, were compelled to lose their own children along with him. Those children your friend Herod killed and delivered over to death; but Christ, whom even now you call your enemy, gave eternal life to these delivered over to mortality.”

PL 42, col. 1123 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput X

VIII. Direct Address to the Jews: Their Perpetual Denial of the Son of God

Caput XI — col. 1123

“Vos, inquam, convenio, o Judæi, qui usque in hodiernum diem negatis Filium Dei.”

“You — I say you — it is you I address, O Jews, who to this very day deny the Son of God.”

PL 42, col. 1123 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XI

IX. On the Jews as Transgressors of Their Own Law

Caput XI — col. 1123

“Prævaricatores Legis, intendite Legem.”

“O transgressors of the Law, attend to the Law.”

PL 42, col. 1123 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XI

X. On the Law’s Own Witnesses Standing Against the Hard Hearts of the Jews

Caput XI — col. 1123

“Ecce duo testes idonei ex Lege vestra, ex quorum testimonio non sunt compuncta corda vestra.”

“Behold, two fitting witnesses from your own Law — by whose testimony your hearts have not been pierced with compunction.”

PL 42, col. 1123 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XI

XI. On the Jews’ Impudence in Demanding a Witness for Christ

Caput XIII — col. 1124

“Sufficiunt vobis ista, o Judæi, an adhuc ad vestram confusionem ex Lege et ex gente vestra alios introducemus testes, ut illi testimonium perhibeant, cui perdita mente insultantes dicebatis, Tu de te ipso testimonium perhibes, testimonium tuum non est verum?”

“Are these things not sufficient for you, O Jews? Or shall we yet introduce further witnesses from your own Law and your own nation, to bear testimony to him whom with minds given over to perdition you insolently said: Thou bearest witness of thyself; thy witness is not true?”

PL 42, col. 1124 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XIII

XII. On the Word of God Being Taken from the Jews and Turned to the Gentiles

Caput XV — col. 1125

“Vobis primum oportuerat annuntiari verbum Dei, sed quia repulistis illud, nec vos dignos vitæ æternæ judicastis, ecce, inquit, convertimur ad Gentes.”

“To you it was fitting that the word of God should first be proclaimed; but since you thrust it away, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, he says, we turn to the Gentiles.”

PL 42, col. 1125 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XV

(Quodvultdeus here quotes Acts 13:46, St. Paul’s rebuke to the Jews of Antioch, applying it universally to Israel.)

XIII. On the Sibyl as a Witness Whose Testimony Strikes Both Jews and Pagans Simultaneously

Caput XVI — col. 1126

“…ut ex uno lapide utrorumque frontes percutiantur, Judæorum scilicet atque Paganorum, atque suo gladio, sicut Golias, Christi omnes percutiantur inimici.”

“…so that with one stone the foreheads of both parties may be struck — namely those of the Jews and the Pagans — and that, with their own sword, as Goliath was struck, all the enemies of Christ may be smitten.”

PL 42, col. 1126 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XVI

XIV. On the Jews as Enemies of God Confronted by All Creation at the Passion

Caput XVII — col. 1127

“Credo jam vos, o inimici Judici, tantis testibus ita obrutos confutatosque, ut nihil ultra quærere debeatis: qui ipsi veritati nimia insipientia vel potius amentia, cum omnia nossetis quæ de Christo essent dicta atque conscripta, inverecunda fronte dicebatis, Tu de te ipso testimonium dicis, testimonium tuum non est verum.”

“I believe that you, O enemies of the Judge, are by so many witnesses so overwhelmed and confuted, that you ought to seek nothing further — you who, with exceeding foolishness, or rather with madness, while knowing all that had been said and written concerning Christ, said with shameless brow: Thou bearest witness of thyself; thy witness is not true.”

PL 42, col. 1127 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XVII

XV. On the Spiritual Blindness of the Jews at the Passion: Darkness at Midday Did Not Move Them

Caput XVII — col. 1127

“Quæ cæcitas infusa est cordibus vestris, ut nec illa vos tanta deterreret medio die solis obscuritas, et inter ejus radios claros amputata lux? Nox recondita in diem: imo nox usurpavit diem, nec cursum sui ordinis natura servavit; sed obtenebratur cælum, luget terra, velum templi conscinditur, petræ scinduntur, inferna reserantur, omnis pene creatura expavescit mortem Christi. Nec tamen in his tantis aperti sunt oculi cordis vestri.”

“What blindness was poured into your hearts, that not even so great a darkening of the sun at midday deterred you — the light cut off even amidst its own clear beams? Night was buried in the day: nay, night usurped the day, and nature did not preserve the course of its own order; but the sky was darkened, the earth mourned, the veil of the Temple was rent, the rocks were split, the underworld was unlocked, and all creation almost shuddered at the death of Christ. And yet by all these great signs, the eyes of your heart were not opened.”

PL 42, col. 1127 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XVII

XVI. On the Demons Who Possessed Jewish Hearts — The Demonic Confession More Truthful than the Jewish One

Caput XVII — col. 1127–1128

“O Judæi, dæmones qui vestra corda possederunt, dixerunt, Scimus qui sis; quid venisti ante tempus perdere nos? — et vos, Tu de te ipso testimonium dicis, testimonium tuum non est verum!”

“O Jews! The demons that possessed your hearts said: We know who thou art; why hast thou come before the time to destroy us? — and yet you said: Thou bearest witness of thyself; thy witness is not true!”

PL 42, col. 1127–1128 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XVII

(The contrast is devastating: the possessed demoniacs confessed Christ’s identity spontaneously, while the Jews, with the whole of the Law in their hands, refused to do so.)

XVII. On Jewish Malice as the Instrument of Christian Salvation — The Theology of Deicide

Caput XVIII — col. 1128

“Sed non intelligentes actiones vestras, egistis causas nostras. Denique nostræ saluti militavit vestra malitia: ille enim qui ad hoc venerat ut pro nobis moreretur, insanis voces, Crucifige, crucifige, clamantium ut homo non expavit, quia ut Deus eas ante prævidit.”

“But not understanding your own actions, you pleaded our cause. In the end, your malice served our salvation: for he who had come for this very purpose — that he might die for us — was not dismayed as a man by the frenzied cries of those shouting, Crucify him, crucify him, because as God he had foreseen them.”

PL 42, col. 1128 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XVIII

XVIII. On the Immensity of Jewish Labour to Accomplish the Crucifixion

Caput XVIII — col. 1128

“Quantum laborastis, ut discipulum Judam pecunia corrumperetis, et a malo venditore mali emptores Christum non possidendum compararetis, nundinas malas agentes animæ vestræ, quando fundebatis pretium salutis nostræ? Quantum laborastis, ut judicem a vestro scelere manus lavantem, calumniis, Cæsaris nomine opposito, opprimeretis? Quantum laborastis, ut Christus occideretur, et latro dimitteretur? Quantum laborastis, ut Christus contumelias pateretur, spinis coronaretur, in ligno suspenderetur, lancea perfoderetur?”

“How greatly you laboured to corrupt the disciple Judas with money, and as wicked buyers from a wicked seller to purchase Christ — not to possess him — engaging the soul’s evil trade when you were paying out the price of our salvation! How greatly you laboured to crush by accusations the judge who was washing his hands of your crime, setting against him the name of Caesar! How greatly you laboured that Christ should be killed and the robber released! How greatly you laboured that Christ should endure insults, be crowned with thorns, be suspended upon the wood, be pierced with the lance!”

PL 42, col. 1128 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XVIII

XIX. On Deicide: “By You Christ Is Killed; For Us He Rises”

Caput XVIII — col. 1128

“Sed omnis iste labor vester, fructus est noster. Denique a vobis Christus occiditur, nobis resurgit: a vobis in ligno suspenditur, clavisque confixus in cruce detinetur, et a ducibus nostris discipulis suis in medio eorum clausis januis invenitur.”

“But all that labour of yours is our fruit. For in the end Christ is killed by you, and rises for us; he is hung upon the wood by you and held fixed there by nails upon the Cross — and by the leaders among his disciples, our own, he is found in the midst of them with the doors closed.”

PL 42, col. 1128 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XVIII

XX. On the Diaspora as Divine Punishment and Providential Sign — The Jews as Witnesses Against Themselves

Caput XVIII — col. 1128–1129

“…dispersit vos per universas terras, ut ubique prophetias de ejus nativitate, passione, resurrectione, ascensione, quæcumque dicta sunt, vos perferatis, atque lucernam Legis, tanquam lignea candelabra sensu carentia gentibus ministretis. Quod propterea factum esse cognoscite, ne gentes hæc omnia quæ aguntur, dum prædicantur, a nobis dicerent fuisse conficta.”

“…he has scattered you through all lands, so that everywhere you might carry the prophecies concerning his birth, passion, resurrection, and ascension — all that has been said — and might serve the Gentiles as the lamp of the Law, like wooden lampstands devoid of understanding. Know that this has been brought about for this reason: lest the Gentiles, hearing these things proclaimed, should say that they had been invented by us.”

PL 42, col. 1128–1129 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XVIII

XXI. On the Diaspora Foretold by King David — Supersessionism Confirmed by Prophecy

Caput XVIII — col. 1129

“Hanc etiam ipsam vestram dispersionem fuisse prædictam, David propheta declarat dicens: Ne occideris eos, ne quando obliviscantur legis tuæ, sed disperge eos in virtute tua. Dispersio ergo hæc vestra testimonium perhibet Christo, cui dixistis, Tu de te ipso testimonium dicis, testimonium tuum non est verum.”

“That this very dispersion of yours had been foretold, the prophet David declares, saying: Slay them not, lest my people forget; scatter them by thy power. This dispersion of yours, therefore, bears witness to Christ, to whom you said: Thou bearest witness of thyself; thy witness is not true.”

PL 42, col. 1129 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XVIII

(Ps. 58:12 [Vulgate] is here applied to the providential function of the Jewish diaspora: Jews are kept alive and scattered so that their possession of the prophetic books may refute Pagan accusations that the prophecies of Christ were fabricated by Christians.)

XXII. On the Jews as “Enemies of Christ” Called to Produce the Prophets Against the Pagans

Caput XVIII — col. 1129

“Proferte codices propheticos, o Judæi Christi inimici, ut ex ipsis alii Pagani convincantur inimici.”

“Bring forth the prophetic books, O Jews, enemies of Christ, so that by them other enemies — the Pagans — may be confounded.”

PL 42, col. 1129 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XVIII

XXIII. On the Jews as Blind Bearers of the Lamp of the Law — A Key Image of Supersessionism

Caput XVIII — col. 1129

“Confundimini et vos, Judæi, qui lucernam Legis in manibus habentes, aliis lumen præbetis, et vos in eam intendere non curatis, sed exspectatis quidem et vos ut veniat qui venturus est.”

“Be confounded, you also, O Jews, who, holding in your hands the lamp of the Law, provide light for others, and yet take no care to look into it yourselves, but wait, even as you do, for the coming of him who is to come.”

PL 42, col. 1129 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XVIII

XXIV. On the Second Coming as the Final Judgment of the Jews — Who Will See the One They Slew

Caput XVIII — col. 1129

“Et veniet; sed non sicut vultis veniet: veniet excelsus ille qui a vobis interfectus est, nullius criminis reus; manifestus veniet Deus, et videbitis judicantem, quem contempsistis, miracula facientem. Qualis erit tunc vestra conscientia, cum vobis ille nullam jam exhibebit patientiam, quia vos invenit in anima mortuos, qui venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos?”

“And he will come; but not as you would wish him to come. He will come in exaltation — that very one who was slain by you, guilty of no crime. He will come manifest as God, and you will behold him in judgment — the one you despised — doing miracles. What will your conscience be then, when he will show you no further patience, because he finds you dead in soul — he who is coming to judge the living and the dead?”

PL 42, col. 1129 — Sermo contra Judæos, Paganos et Arianos, Caput XVIII

Sources

  • Patrologia Latina, Tomus XLII: Sancti Aurelii Augustini, Hipponensis Episcopi, Opera Omnia — Tomus Octavus (including the Appendix containing works of Quodvultdeus). Accurante J.-P. Migne. Parisiis: Excudebatur et venit apud J.-P. Migne Editorem, 1865.
  • Braun, René, ed. Opera Quodvultdeo Carthaginiensi Episcopo Tributa. Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 60. Turnhout: Brepols, 1976. (The modern critical edition, superseding Migne for textual scholarship; the chapter and paragraph numbering in CCL 60 differs slightly from Migne.)
  • Finn, Thomas Macy, trans. and comm. Quodvultdeus of Carthage: The Creedal Homilies — Conversion in Fifth-Century North Africa. Ancient Christian Writers 60. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2004. (First English translation of the De Symbolo homilies; does not include the full Sermo contra Judæos.)
  • Mbonigaba, Félicien. La traditio symboli nell’Africa cristiana all’epoca dell’invasione dei Vandali: introduzione, testo latino e traduzione italiana del Contra Iudaeos, Paganos et Arrianos di Quodvultdeus di Cartagine. Roma, 2015. (Italian translation with Latin parallel text of the full Sermo contra Judæos.)
  • Van Slyke, Daniel. Quodvultdeus of Carthage: The Apocalyptic Theology of a Roman African in Exile. Strathfield, NSW: St. Pauls Publications, 2003. (Standard English monograph on Quodvultdeus’s life and thought.)

All Latin text is taken from the Migne Patrologia Latina, vol. 42 (Paris, 1865), Google-digitised from the University of Michigan copy. Obvious OCR errors in the digitisation (e.g., “kemones” for “dæmones,” “costri” for “nostri,” “Lalitateni” for “mortalitati”) have been silently corrected. English renderings are translated directly from the Latin. Column numbers follow the Migne edition; paragraph numbers follow the Migne chapter divisions as indexed in the volume’s analytical table of contents (PL 42, cols. 1037–1060 for the Adversus Quinque Hæreses, and the running headers of the Sermo contra Judæos). The CCL 60 (Braun) numbering differs and should be consulted for serious textual work.