In the next place, as if the only event predicted were this, that He was
to be “the Judge of the righteous and the Punisher of the wicked,” and
as if neither the place of His birth, nor the sufferings which He was to
endure at the hands of the Jews, nor His resurrection, nor the wonderful
works which He was to perform, had been made the subject of prophecy, he
continues: “Why should it be you alone, rather than innumerable others,
who existed after the prophecies were published, to whom these
predictions are applicable?” And desiring, I know not how, to suggest to
others the possibility of the notion that they themselves were the
persons referred to by the prophets, he says that “some, carried away by
enthusiasm, and others having gathered a multitude of followers, give
out that the Son of God is come down from heaven.” Now we have not
ascertained that such occurrences are admitted to have taken place among
the Jews. We have to remark then, in the first place, that many of the
prophets have uttered predictions in all kinds of ways[1209] regarding
Christ; some by means of dark sayings, others in allegories or in some
other manner, and some also in express words. And as in what follows he
says, in the character of the Jew addressing the converts from his own
nation, and repeating emphatically and malevolently, that “the
prophecies referred to the events of his life may also suit other events
as well,” we shall state a few of them out of a greater number; and with
respect to these, any one who chooses may say what he thinks fitted to
ensure a refutation of them, and which may turn away intelligent
believers from the faith.
Footnote 1209:
παντοδαπῶς προεῖπον.