PERPETUITY
588
_On the fact that the Christian religion is not the only religion._--So
far is this from being a reason for believing that it is not the true
one, that, on the contrary, it makes us see that it is so.
589
Men must be sincere in all religions; true heathens, true Jews, true
Christians.
590
J. C.
Heathens __|__ Mahomet
\ /
Ignorance
of God.
591
_The falseness of other religions._--They have no witnesses. Jews have.
God defies other religions to produce such signs: Isaiah xliii, 9; xliv,
8.
592
_History of China._[213]-I believe only the histories, whose witnesses
got themselves killed.
[Which is the more credible of the two, Moses or China?]
It is not a question of seeing this summarily. I tell you there is in it
something to blind, and something to enlighten.
By this one word I destroy all your reasoning. "But China obscures," say
you; and I answer, "China obscures, but there is clearness to be found;
seek it."
Thus all that you say makes for one of the views, and not at all against
the other. So this serves, and does no harm.
We must then see this in detail; we must put the papers on the table.
593
_Against the history of China._ The historians of Mexico, the five
suns,[214] of which the last is only eight hundred years old.
The difference between a book accepted by a nation, and one which makes
a nation.
594
Mahomet was without authority. His reasons then should have been very
strong, having only their own force. What does he say then, that we must
believe him?
595
The Psalms are chanted throughout the whole world.
Who renders testimony to Mahomet? Himself. Jesus Christ[215] desires His
own testimony to be as nothing.
The quality of witnesses necessitates their existence always and
everywhere; and he, miserable creature, is alone.
596
_Against Mahomet._--The Koran is not more of Mahomet than the Gospel is
of Saint Matthew, for it is cited by many authors from age to age. Even
its very enemies, Celsus and Porphyry, never denied it.
The Koran says Saint Matthew was an honest man.[216] Therefore Mahomet
was a false prophet for calling honest men wicked, or for not agreeing
with what they have said of Jesus Christ.
597
It is not by that which is obscure in Mahomet, and which may be
interpreted in a mysterious sense, that I would have him judged, but by
what is clear, as his paradise and the rest. In that he is ridiculous.
And since what is clear is ridiculous, it is not right to take his
obscurities for mysteries.
It is not the same with the Scripture. I agree that there are in it
obscurities as strange as those of Mahomet; but there are admirably
clear passages, and the prophecies are manifestly fulfilled. The cases
are therefore not on a par. We must not confound, and put on one level
things which only resemble each other in their obscurity, and not in the
clearness, which requires us to reverence the obscurities.
598
_The difference between Jesus Christ and Mahomet._--Mahomet was not
foretold; Jesus Christ was foretold.
Mahomet slew; Jesus Christ caused His own to be slain.
Mahomet forbade reading; the Apostles ordered reading.
In fact the two are so opposed, that if Mahomet took the way to succeed
from a worldly point of view, Jesus Christ, from the same point of view,
took the way to perish. And instead of concluding that, since Mahomet
succeeded, Jesus Christ might well have succeeded, we ought to say that
since Mahomet succeeded, Jesus Christ should have failed.
599
Any man can do what Mahomet has done; for he performed no miracles, he
was not foretold. No man can do what Christ has done.
600
The heathen religion has no foundation [at the present day. It is said
once to have had a foundation by the oracles which spoke. But what are
the books which assure us of this? Are they so worthy of belief on
account of the virtue of their authors? Have they been preserved with
such care that we can be sure that they have not been meddled with?]
The Mahometan religion has for a foundation the Koran and Mahomet. But
has this prophet, who was to be the last hope of the world, been
foretold? What sign has he that every other man has not, who chooses to
call himself a prophet? What miracles does he himself say that he has
done? What mysteries has he taught, even according to his own tradition?
What was the morality, what the happiness held out by him?
The Jewish religion must be differently regarded in the tradition of the
Holy Bible, and in the tradition of the people. Its morality and
happiness are absurd in the tradition of the people, but are admirable
in that of the Holy Bible. (And all religion is the same; for the
Christian religion is very different in the Holy Bible and in the
casuists.) The foundation is admirable; it is the most ancient book in
the world, and the most authentic; and whereas Mahomet, in order to make
his own book continue in existence, forbade men to read it, Moses,[217]
for the same reason, ordered every one to read his.
Our religion is so divine that another divine religion has only been the
foundation of it.
601
_Order._--To see what is clear and indisputable in the whole state of
the Jews.
602
The Jewish religion is wholly divine in its authority, its duration, its
perpetuity, its morality, its doctrine, and its effects.
603
The only science contrary to common sense and human nature is that alone
which has always existed among men.
604
The only religion contrary to nature, to common sense, and to our
pleasure, is that alone which has always existed.
605
No religion but our own has taught that man is born in sin. No sect of
philosophers has said this. Therefore none have declared the truth.
No sect or religion has always existed on earth, but the Christian
religion.
606
Whoever judges of the Jewish religion by its coarser forms will
misunderstand it. It is to be seen in the Holy Bible, and in the
tradition of the prophets, who have made it plain enough that they did
not interpret the law according to the letter. So our religion is divine
in the Gospel, in the Apostles, and in tradition; but it is absurd in
those who tamper with it.
The Messiah, according to the carnal Jews, was to be a great temporal
prince. Jesus Christ, according to carnal Christians,[218] has come to
dispense us from the love of God, and to give us sacraments which shall
do everything without our help. Such is not the Christian religion, nor
the Jewish. True Jews and true Christians have always expected a Messiah
who should make them love God, and by that love triumph over their
enemies.
607
The carnal Jews hold a midway place between Christians and heathens. The
heathens know not God, and love the world only. The Jews know the true
God, and love the world only. The Christians know the true God, and love
not the world. Jews and heathens love the same good. Jews and Christians
know the same God.
The Jews were of two kinds; the first had only heathen affections, the
other had Christian affections.
608
There are two kinds of men in each religion: among the heathen,
worshippers of beasts, and the worshippers of the one only God of
natural religion; among the Jews, the carnal, and the spiritual, who
were the Christians of the old law; among Christians, the
coarser-minded, who are the Jews of the new law. The carnal Jews looked
for a carnal Messiah; the coarser Christians believe that the Messiah
has dispensed them from the love of God; true Jews and true Christians
worship a Messiah who makes them love God.
609
_To show that the true Jews and the true Christians have but the same
religion._--The religion of the Jews seemed to consist essentially in
the fatherhood of Abraham, in circumcision, in sacrifices, in
ceremonies, in the Ark, in the temple, in Jerusalem, and, finally, in
the law, and in the covenant with Moses.
I say that it consisted in none of those things, but only in the love of
God, and that God disregarded all the other things.
That God did not accept the posterity of Abraham.
That the Jews were to be punished like strangers, if they transgressed.
_Deut._ viii, 19; "If thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk
after other gods, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely
perish, as the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face."
That strangers, if they loved God, were to be received by Him as the
Jews. _Isaiah_ lvi, 3: "Let not the stranger say, 'The Lord will not
receive me.' The strangers who join themselves unto the Lord to serve
Him and love Him, will I bring unto my holy mountain, and accept therein
sacrifices, for mine house is a house of prayer."
That the true Jews considered their merit to be from God only, and not
from Abraham. _Isaiah_ lxiii, 16; "Doubtless thou art our Father, though
Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not. Thou art our
Father and our Redeemer."
Moses himself told them that God would not accept persons. _Deut._ x,
17: "God," said he, "regardeth neither persons nor sacrifices."
The Sabbath was only a sign, _Exod._ xxxi, 13; and in memory of the
escape from Egypt, _Deut._ v, 19. Therefore it is no longer necessary,
since Egypt must be forgotten.
Circumcision was only a sign, _Gen._ xvii, 11. And thence it came to
pass that, being in the desert, they were not circumcised because they
could not be confounded with other peoples; and after Jesus Christ came,
it was no longer necessary.
That the circumcision of the heart is commanded. _Deut._ x, 16;
_Jeremiah_ iv, 4: "Be ye circumcised in heart; take away the
superfluities of your heart, and harden yourselves not. For your God is
a mighty God, strong and terrible, who accepteth not persons."
That God said He would one day do it. _Deut._ xxx, 6; "God will
circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, that thou mayest love
Him with all thine heart."
That the uncircumcised in heart shall be judged. _Jeremiah_ ix, 26: For
God will judge the uncircumcised peoples, and all the people of Israel,
because he is "uncircumcised in heart."
That the external is of no avail apart from the internal. _Joel_ ii, 13:
_Scindite corda vestra_, etc.; _Isaiah_ lviii, 3, 4, etc.
The love of God is enjoined in the whole of Deuteronomy. _Deut._ xxx,
19: "I call heaven and earth to record that I have set before you life
and death, that you should choose life, and love God, and obey Him, for
God is your life."
That the Jews, for lack of that love, should be rejected for their
offences, and the heathen chosen in their stead. _Hosea_ i, 10; _Deut._
xxxii, 20. "I will hide myself from them in view of their latter sins,
for they are a froward generation without faith. They have moved me to
jealousy with that which is not God, and I will move them to jealousy
with those which are not a people, and with an ignorant and foolish
nation." _Isaiah_ lxv, 1.
That temporal goods are false, and that the true good is to be united to
God. _Psalm_ cxliii, 15.
That their feasts are displeasing to God. _Amos_ v, 21.
That the sacrifices of the Jews displeased God. _Isaiah_ lxvi. 1-3; i,
II; _Jer._ vi, 20; David, _Miserere._--Even on the part of the good,
_Expectavi_. _Psalm_ xlix, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14.
That He has established them only for their hardness. _Micah_,
admirably, vi; 1 _Kings_ xv, 22; _Hosea_ vi, 6.
That the sacrifices of the Gentiles will be accepted of God, and that
God will take no pleasure in the sacrifices of the Jews. _Malachi_ i,
II.
That God will make a new covenant with the Messiah, and the old will be
annulled. _Jer._ xxxi, 31. _Mandata non bona. Ezek._
That the old things will be forgotten. _Isaiah_ xliii, 18, 19; lxv 17,
10.
That the Ark will no longer be remembered. _Jer._ iii, 15, 16.
That the temple should be rejected. _Jer._ vii, 12, 13, 14.
That the sacrifices should be rejected, and other pure sacrifices
established. _Malachi_ i, II.
That the order of Aaron's priesthood should be rejected, and that of
Melchizedek introduced by the Messiah. _Ps. Dixit Dominus._
That this priesthood should be eternal. _Ibid._
That Jerusalem should be rejected, and Rome admitted. _Ps. Dixit
Dominus._
That the name of the Jews should be rejected, and a new name given.
_Isaiah_ lxv, 15.
That this last name should be more excellent than that of the Jews, and
eternal. _Isaiah_ lvi, 5.
That the Jews should be without prophets (Amos), without a king, without
princes, without sacrifice, without an idol.
That the Jews should nevertheless always remain a people. _Jer._ xxxi,
36.
610
_Republic._--The Christian republic--and even the Jewish--has only had
God for ruler, as Philo the Jew notices, _On Monarchy_.
When they fought, it was for God only; their chief hope was in God only;
they considered their towns as belonging to God only, and kept them for
God. 1 _Chron._ xix, 13.
611
_Gen._ xvii, 7. _Statuam pactum meum inter me et te foedere sempiterno
... ut sim Deus tuus ..._
_Et tu ergo custodies pactum meum._
612
_Perpetuity._--That religion has always existed on earth, which consists
in believing that man has fallen from a state of glory and of communion
with God into a state of sorrow, penitence, and estrangement from God,
but that after this life we shall be restored by a Messiah who should
have come. All things have passed away, and this has endured, for which
all things are.
Men have in the first age of the world been carried away into every kind
of debauchery, and yet there were saints, as Enoch, Lamech, and others,
who waited patiently for the Christ promised from the beginning of the
world. Noah saw the wickedness of men at its height; and he was held
worthy to save the world in his person, by the hope of the Messiah of
whom he was the type. Abraham was surrounded by idolaters, when God made
known to him the mystery of the Messiah, whom he welcomed from
afar.[219] In the time of Isaac and Jacob abomination was spread over
all the earth; but these saints lived in faith; and Jacob, dying and
blessing his children, cried in a transport which made him break off his
discourse, "I await, O my God, the Saviour whom Thou hast promised.
_Salutare taum expectabo, Domine._"[220] The Egyptians were infected
both with idolatry and magic; the very people of God were led astray by
their example. Yet Moses and others believed Him whom they saw not, and
worshipped Him, looking to the eternal gifts which He was preparing for
them.
The Greeks and Latins then set up false deities; the poets made a
hundred different theologies, while the philosophers separated into a
thousand different sects; and yet in the heart of Judaea there were
always chosen men who foretold the coming of this Messiah, which was
known to them alone.
He came at length in the fullness of time, and time has since witnessed
the birth of so many schisms and heresies, so many political
revolutions, so many changes in all things; yet this Church, which
worships Him who has always been worshipped, has endured
uninterruptedly. It is a wonderful, incomparable, and altogether divine
fact that this religion, which has always endured, has always been
attacked. It has been a thousand times on the eve of universal
destruction, and every time it has been in that state, God has restored
it by extraordinary acts of His power. This is astonishing, as also that
it has preserved itself without yielding to the will of tyrants. For it
is not strange that a State endures, when its laws are sometimes made
to give way to necessity, but that.... (See the passage indicated in
Montaigne.)
613
States would perish if they did not often make their laws give way to
necessity. But religion has never suffered this, or practised it.
Indeed, there must be these compromises, or miracles. It is not strange
to be saved by yieldings, and this is not strictly self-preservation;
besides, in the end they perish entirely. None has endured a thousand
years. But the fact that this religion has always maintained itself,
inflexible as it is, proves its divinity.
614
Whatever may be said, it must be admitted that the Christian religion
has something astonishing in it. Some will say, "This is because you
were born in it." Far from it; I stiffen myself against it for this very
reason, for fear this prejudice bias me. But although I am born in it, I
cannot help finding it so.
615
_Perpetuity._--The Messiah has always been believed in. The tradition
from Adam was fresh in Noah and in Moses. Since then the prophets have
foretold him, while at the same time foretelling other things, which,
being from time to time fulfilled in the sight of men, showed the truth
of their mission, and consequently that of their promises touching the
Messiah. Jesus Christ performed miracles, and the Apostles also, who
converted all the heathen; and all the prophecies being thereby
fulfilled, the Messiah is for ever proved.
616
_Perpetuity._--Let us consider that since the beginning of the world the
expectation of worship of the Messiah has existed uninterruptedly; that
there have been found men, who said that God had revealed to them that a
Redeemer was to be born, who should save His people; that Abraham came
afterwards, saying that he had had a revelation that the Messiah was to
spring from him by a son, whom he should have; that Jacob declared that,
of his twelve sons, the Messiah would spring from Judah; that Moses and
the prophets then came to declare the time and the manner of His coming;
that they said their law was only temporary till that of the Messiah,
that it should endure till then, but that the other should last for
ever; that thus either their law, or that of the Messiah, of which it
was the promise, would be always upon the earth; that, in fact, it has
always endured; that at last Jesus Christ came with all the
circumstances foretold. This is wonderful.
617
This is positive fact. While all philosophers separate into different
sects, there is found in one corner of the world the most ancient people
in it, declaring that all the world is in error, that God has revealed
to them the truth, that they will always exist on the earth. In fact,
all other sects come to an end, this one still endures, and has done so
for four thousand years.
They declare that they hold from their ancestors that man has fallen
from communion with God, and is entirely estranged from God, but that He
has promised to redeem them; that this doctrine shall always exist on
the earth; that their law has a double signification; that during
sixteen hundred years they have had people, whom they believed prophets,
foretelling both the time and the manner; that four hundred years after
they were scattered everywhere, because Jesus Christ was to be
everywhere announced; that Jesus Christ came in the manner, and at the
time foretold; that the Jews have since been scattered abroad under a
curse, and nevertheless still exist.
618
I see the Christian religion founded upon a preceding religion, and this
is what I find as a fact.
I do not here speak of the miracles of Moses, of Jesus Christ, and of
the Apostles, because they do not at first seem convincing, and because
I only wish here to put in evidence all those foundations of the
Christian religion which are beyond doubt, and which cannot be called in
question by any person whatsoever. It is certain that we see in many
places of the world a peculiar people, separated from all other peoples
of the world, and called the Jewish people.
I see then a crowd of religions in many parts of the world and in all
times; but their morality cannot please me, nor can their proofs
convince me. Thus I should equally have rejected the religion of Mahomet
and of China, of the ancient Romans and of the Egyptians, for the sole
reason, that none having more marks of truth than another, nor anything
which should necessarily persuade me, reason cannot incline to one
rather than the other.
But, in thus considering this changeable and singular variety of morals
and beliefs at different times, I find in one corner of the world a
peculiar people, separated from all other peoples on earth, the most
ancient of all, and whose histories are earlier by many generations than
the most ancient which we possess.
I find, then, this great and numerous people, sprung from a single man,
who worship one God, and guide themselves by a law which they say that
they obtained from His own hand. They maintain that they are the only
people in the world to whom God has revealed His mysteries; that all men
are corrupt and in disgrace with God; that they are all abandoned to
their senses and their own imagination, whence come the strange errors
and continual changes which happen among them, both of religions and of
morals, whereas they themselves remain firm in their conduct; but that
God will not leave other nations in this darkness for ever; that there
will come a Saviour for all; that they are in the world to announce Him
to men; that they are expressly formed to be forerunners and heralds of
this great event, and to summon all nations to join with them in the
expectation of this Saviour.
To meet with this people is astonishing to me, and seems to me worthy of
attention. I look at the law which they boast of having obtained from
God, and I find it admirable. It is the first law of all, and is of such
a kind that, even before the term _law_ was in currency among the
Greeks, it had, for nearly a thousand years earlier, been
uninterruptedly accepted and observed by the Jews. I likewise think it
strange that the first law of the world happens to be the most perfect;
so that the greatest legislators have borrowed their laws from it, as is
apparent from the law of the Twelve Tables at Athens,[221] afterwards
taken by the Romans, and as it would be easy to prove, if Josephus[222]
and others had not sufficiently dealt with this subject.
619
_Advantages of the Jewish people._--In this search the Jewish people at
once attracts my attention by the number of wonderful and singular facts
which appear about them.
I first see that they are a people wholly composed of brethren, and
whereas all others are formed by the assemblage of an infinity of
families, this, though so wonderfully fruitful, has all sprung from one
man alone, and, being thus all one flesh, and members one of another,
they constitute a powerful state of one family. This is unique.
This family, or people, is the most ancient within human knowledge, a
fact which seems to me to inspire a peculiar veneration for it,
especially in view of our present inquiry; since if God had from all
time revealed Himself to men, it is to these we must turn for knowledge
of the tradition.
This people is not eminent solely by their antiquity, but is also
singular by their duration, which has always continued from their origin
till now. For whereas the nations of Greece and of Italy, of Lacedaemon,
of Athens and of Rome, and others who came long after, have long since
perished, these ever remain, and in spite of the endeavours of many
powerful kings who have a hundred times tried to destroy them, as their
historians testify, and as it is easy to conjecture from the natural
order of things during so long a space of years, they have nevertheless
been preserved (and this preservation has been foretold); and extending
from the earliest times to the latest, their history comprehends in its
duration all our histories [which it preceded by a long time].
The law by which this people is governed is at once the most ancient law
in the world, the most perfect, and the only one which has been always
observed without a break in a state. This is what Josephus admirably
proves, _against Apion_,[223] and also Philo[224] the Jew, in different
places, where they point out that it is so ancient that the very name of
_law_ was only known by the oldest nation more than a thousand years
afterwards; so that Homer, who has written the history of so many
states, has never used the term. And it is easy to judge of its
perfection by simply reading it; for we see that it has provided for all
things with so great wisdom, equity, and judgment, that the most ancient
legislators, Greek and Roman, having had some knowledge of it, have
borrowed from it their principal laws; this is evident from what are
called the Twelve Tables, and from the other proofs which Josephus
gives.
But this law is at the same time the severest and strictest of all in
respect to their religious worship, imposing on this people, in order to
keep them to their duty, a thousand peculiar and painful observances, on
pain of death. Whence it is very astonishing that it has been
constantly preserved during many centuries by a people, rebellious and
impatient as this one was; while all other states have changed their
laws from time to time, although these were far more lenient.
The book which contains this law, the first of all, is itself the most
ancient book in the world, those of Homer, Hesiod, and others, being six
or seven hundred years later.
620
The creation and the deluge being past, and God no longer requiring to
destroy the world, nor to create it anew, nor to give such great signs
of Himself, He began to establish a people on the earth, purposely
formed, who were to last until the coming of the people whom the Messiah
should fashion by His spirit.
621
The creation of the world beginning to be distant, God provided a single
contemporary historian, and appointed a whole people as guardians of
this book, in order that this history might be the most authentic in the
world, and that all men might thereby learn a fact so necessary to know,
and which could only be known through that means.
622
[Japhet begins the genealogy.]
Joseph folds his arms, and prefers the younger.[225]
623
Why should Moses make the lives of men so long, and their generations so
few?
Because it is not the length of years, but the multitude of generations,
which renders things obscure. For truth is perverted only by the change
of men. And yet he puts two things, the most memorable that were ever
imagined, namely, the creation and the deluge, so near that we reach
from one to the other.
624
Shem, who saw Lamech, who saw Adam, saw also Jacob, who saw those who
saw Moses; therefore the deluge and the creation are true. This is
conclusive among certain people who understand it rightly.
625
The longevity of the patriarchs, instead of causing the loss of past
history, conduced, on the contrary, to its preservation. For the reason
why we are sometimes insufficiently instructed in the history of our
ancestors, is that we have never lived long with them, and that they are
often dead before we have attained the age of reason. Now, when men
lived so long, children lived long with their parents. They conversed
long with them. But what else could be the subject of their talk save
the history of their ancestors, since to that all history was reduced,
and men did not study science or art, which now form a large part of
daily conversation? We see also that in these days tribes took
particular care to preserve their genealogies.
626
I believe that Joshua was the first of God's people to have this name,
as Jesus Christ was the last of God's people.
627
_Antiquity of the Jews._--What a difference there is between one book
and another! I am not astonished that the Greeks made the Iliad, nor the
Egyptians and the Chinese their histories.
We have only to see how this originates. These fabulous historians are
not contemporaneous with the facts about which they write. Homer
composes a romance, which he gives out as such, and which is received as
such; for nobody doubted that Troy and Agamemnon no more existed than
did the golden apple. Accordingly he did not think of making a history,
but solely a book to amuse; he is the only writer of his time; the
beauty of the work has made it last, every one learns it and talks of
it, it is necessary to know it, and each one knows it by heart. Four
hundred years afterwards the witnesses of these facts are no longer
alive, no one knows of his own knowledge if it be a fable or a history;
one has only learnt it from his ancestors, and this can pass for truth.
Every history which is not contemporaneous, as the books of the Sibyls
and Trismegistus,[226] and so many others which have been believed by
the world, are false, and found to be false in the course of time. It is
not so with contemporaneous writers.
There is a great difference between a book which an individual writes,
and publishes to a nation, and a book which itself creates a nation. We
cannot doubt that the book is as old as the people.
628
Josephus hides the shame of his nation.
Moses does not hide his own shame.
_Quis mihi det ut omnes prophetent?_[227]
He was weary of the multitude.
629
_The sincerity of the Jews._--Maccabees,[228] after they had no more
prophets; the Masorah, since Jesus Christ.
This book will be a testimony for you.[229]
Defective and final letters.
Sincere against their honour, and dying for it; this has no example in
the world, and no root in nature.
630
_Sincerity of the Jews._--They preserve lovingly and carefully the book
in which Moses declares that they have been all their life ungrateful to
God, and that he knows they will be still more so after his death; but
that he calls heaven and earth to witness against them, and that he has
[_taught_] them enough.
He declares that God, being angry with them, shall at last scatter them
among all the nations of the earth; that as they have offended Him by
worshipping gods who were not their God, so He will provoke them by
calling a people who are not His people; that He desires that all His
words be preserved for ever, and that His book be placed in the Ark of
the Covenant to serve for ever as a witness against them.
Isaiah says the same thing, xxx.
631
_On Esdras._--The story that the books were burnt with the temple proved
false by Maccabees: "Jeremiah gave them the law."
The story that he recited the whole by heart. Josephus and Esdras point
out _that he read the book_. Baronius, _Ann._, p. 180: _Nullus penitus
Hebraeorum antiquorum reperitur qui tradiderit libros periisse et per
Esdram esse restitutos, nisi in IV Esdrae._
The story that he changed the letters.
Philo, _in Vita Moysis: Illa lingua ac character quo antiquitus scripta
est lex sic permansit usque ad LXX._
Josephus says that the Law was in Hebrew when it was translated by the
Seventy.
Under Antiochus and Vespasian, when they wanted to abolish the books,
and when there was no prophet, they could not do so. And under the
Babylonians, when no persecution had been made, and when there were so
many prophets, would they have let them be burnt?
Josephus laughs at the Greeks who would not bear ...
Tertullian.[230]--_Perinde potuit abolefactam eam violentia cataclysmi
in spiritu rursus reformare, quemadmodum et Hierosolymis Babylonia
expugnatione deletis, omne instrumentum Judaicae literaturae per Esdram
constat restauratum._
He says that Noah could as easily have restored in spirit the book of
Enoch, destroyed by the Deluge, as Esdras could have restored the
Scriptures lost during the Captivity.
+(Theos) hen te hepi Nabouchodonosor aichmalosia tou laou,
diaphthareison ton graphon ... henepneuse Esdra to ierei hek tes phyles
Leui tous ton progegonoton propheton pantas hanataxasthai logous, kai
hapokatastesai to lao ten dia Moyseos nomothesian.+[231] He alleges this
to prove that it is not incredible that the Seventy may have explained
the holy Scriptures with that uniformity which we admire in them. And he
took that from Saint Irenaeus.[232]
Saint Hilary, in his preface to the Psalms, says that Esdras arranged
the Psalms in order.
The origin of this tradition comes from the 14th chapter of the fourth
book of Esdras. _Deus glorificatus est, et Scripturae vere divinae creditae
sunt, omnibus eandem et eisdem verbis et eisdem nominibus recitantibus
ab initio usque ad finem, uti et praesentes gentes cognoscerent quoniam
per inspirationem Dei interpretatae sunt Scripturae, et non esset mirabile
Deum hoc in eis operatum: quando in ea captivitate populi quae facta est
a Nabuchodonosor, corruptis scripturis et post 70 annos Judaeis
descendentibus in regionem suam, et post deinde temporibus Artaxerxis
Persarum regis, inspiravit Esdrae sacerdoti tribus Levi praeteritorum
prophetarum omnes rememorare sermones, et restituere populo eam legem
quae data est per Moysen._
632
_Against the story in Esdras, 2 Maccab._ ii;--Josephus, _Antiquities_,
II, i--Cyrus took occasion from the prophecy of Isaiah to release the
people. The Jews held their property in peace under Cyrus in Babylon;
hence they could well have the Law.
Josephus, in the whole history of Esdras, does not say one word about
this restoration.--2 Kings xvii, 27.
633
If the story in Esdras[233] is credible, then it must be believed that
the Scripture is Holy Scripture; for this story is based only on the
authority of those who assert that of the Seventy, which shows that the
Scripture is holy.
Therefore if this account be true, we have what we want therein; if not,
we have it elsewhere. And thus those who would ruin the truth of our
religion, founded on Moses, establish it by the same authority by which
they attack it. So by this providence it still exists.
634
_Chronology of Rabbinism._ (The citations of pages are from the book
_Pugio_.)
Page 27. R. Hakadosch (_anno_ 200), author of the _Mischna_, or vocal
law, or second law.
Commentaries on the _Mischna (anno_ 340): {The one _Siphra_.
_Barajetot_. _Talmud Hierosol_. _Tosiphtot_.}
_Bereschit Rabah_, by R. Osaiah Rabah, commentary on the _Mischna_.
_Bereschit Rabah, Bar Naconi_, are subtle and pleasant discourses,
historical and theological. This same author wrote the books called
_Rabot_.
A hundred years after the _Talmud Hierosol_ was composed the _Babylonian
Talmud_, by R. Ase, A.D. 440, by the universal consent of all the Jews,
who are necessarily obliged to observe all that is contained therein.
The addition of R. Ase is called the _Gemara_, that is to say, the
"commentary" on the _Mischna_.
And the Talmud includes together the _Mischna_ and the _Gemara_.
635
_If_ does not indicate indifference: Malachi, Isaiah.
Is., _Si volumus_, etc.
_In quacumque die._
636
_Prophecies._--The sceptre was not interrupted by the captivity in
Babylon, because the return was promised and foretold.
637
_Proofs of Jesus Christ._--Captivity, with the assurance of deliverance
within seventy years, was not real captivity. But now they are captives
without any hope.
God has promised them that even though He should scatter them to the
ends of the earth, nevertheless if they were faithful to His law, He
would assemble them together again. They are very faithful to it, and
remain oppressed.
638
When Nebuchadnezzar carried away the people, for fear they should
believe that the sceptre had departed from Judah, they were told
beforehand that they would be there for a short time, and that they
would be restored. They were always consoled by the prophets; and their
kings continued. But the second destruction is without promise of
restoration, without prophets, without kings, without consolation,
without hope, because the sceptre is taken away for ever.
639
It is a wonderful thing, and worthy of particular attention, to see this
Jewish people existing so many years in perpetual misery, it being
necessary as a proof of Jesus Christ, both that they should exist to
prove Him, and that they should be miserable because they crucified Him;
and though to be miserable and to exist are contradictory, they
nevertheless still exist in spite of their misery.
640
They are visibly a people expressly created to serve as a witness to the
Messiah (Isaiah, xliii, 9; xliv, 8). They keep the books, and love them,
and do not understand them. And all this was foretold; that God's
judgments are entrusted to them, but as a sealed book.