On the Incarnation

Yet the Jews disbelieve this. This argument does not satisfy them. Well then, let them be persuaded by other things in their own oracles. Of whom, for instance, do the prophets say, I was made manifest to those who did not seek me. I was found by those who had not asked for me. I said, see, here am I, to the nation that had not called upon my name. I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people. Who is this person that was made manifest, one might ask the Jews. If the prophet is speaking of himself, then they must tell us how he was first hidden, in order to be manifested afterwards. And again, what kind of man is this prophet, who was not only revealed after being hidden, but also stretched out his hands upon the cross. Those things happened to none of those righteous men. They happened only to the word of God, who, being by nature without body, on our account appeared in a body and suffered for us all. And even if this is not enough for them, there is other overwhelming evidence by which they may be silenced. The scripture says, be strong, hands that hang down and feeble knees. Take courage, you of little faith. Be strong and do not fear. See, our God will recompense judgment. He himself will come and save us. Then the eyes of blind men shall be open, and the ears of deaf men shall hear, and stammerers shall speak distinctly. What can they say of this, or how can they look it in the face at all? For the prophecy does not only declare that God will dwell here, it also makes known the signs and the time of his coming. When God comes, it says, the blind will see, the lame will walk, the deaf will hear, and the stammerers will speak distinctly. Can the Jews tell us when such signs occurred in Israel, or when anything of the kind took place at all in Jewry? The leper Naaman was cleansed, it is true, but no deaf man heard, nor did any lame man walk. Elijah raised a dead person, and so did Elisha, but no one blind from birth received his sight. To raise a dead person is a great thing indeed, but it is not such as the Savior did. And surely, since the scriptures have not kept silence about the leper and the dead son of the widow, if a lame man had walked and a blind man had received his sight, they would have mentioned these as well. Their silence on these points proves that the events never took place. When, therefore, did these things happen? Unless when the word of God himself came in the body. Was it not when he came that lame men walked and stammerers spoke clearly, and men blind from birth were given sight? And the Jews who saw it themselves testified to the fact that such things had never before occurred. Since the world began, they said, it has never been heard that anyone should open the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. But surely they cannot fight against the plain facts. So it may be that, without denying what is written, they will maintain that they are still waiting for these things to happen, and that the word of God is yet to come. For that is a theme on which they are always harping, most brazenly, in spite of all the evidence against them. But they shall be refuted on this supreme point more clearly than on any, and that not by ourselves, but by the most counsel of Daniel. For he signifies the actual date of the Savior's coming, as well as his divine sojourn in our midst. Seventy weeks, he says, are cut short upon thy people and upon the holy city, to make a complete end of sin, and for sins to be sealed up and iniquities blotted out, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to seal vision and prophet, and to anoint a holy one of holies. And thou shalt know and understand from the going forth of the word to answer, and to build Jerusalem until Christ the Prince. In regard to the other prophecies, they may possibly be able to find excuses for deferring their reference to a future time. But what can they say to this one? How can they face it at all? Not only does it expressly mention the anointed one, that is the Christ, it even declares that he who is to be anointed is not man only, but the holy one of holies. And it says that Jerusalem is to stand till his coming, and that after it, prophet and vision shall cease in Israel. David was anointed of old, and Solomon, and Hezekiah, but then Jerusalem and the place stood. And prophets were prophesying, Gad, and Asaph, and Nathan, and later Isaiah, and Hosea, and Amos, and others. Moreover, those men who were anointed were called holy certainly, but none of them were called the holy of holies. Nor is it any use for the Jews to take refuge in the captivity, and say that Jerusalem did not exist then. For what about the prophets? It is a fact that at the outset of the exile, Daniel and Jeremiah were there, and Ezekiel, and Haggai, and Zechariah also prophesied. So the Jews are indulging in fiction, and transferring present time to future. When did prophet and vision cease from Israel? Was it not when Christ came, the holy one of holies? It is in fact a sign and notable proof of the coming of the word that Jerusalem no longer stands. Neither is prophet raised up, nor vision revealed among them. And it is natural that it should be so, for when he that was signified had come, what need was there any longer of any to signify? And when the truth had come, what further need was there of the shadow? On his account only they prophesied continually, until such time as essential righteousness has come, who has made the ransom for the sins of all. For the same reason Jerusalem stood until the same time, in order that their men might premeditate the types before the truth was known. So of course, once the holy one of holies had come, both vision and prophecy were sealed. And the kingdom of Jerusalem ceased at the same time, because kings were to be anointed among them only until the holy of holies had been anointed. Moses also prophesied that the kingdom of the Jews shall stand until his time, saying, A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a prince from his loins, until the things laid up for him shall come, and the expectation of the nations himself. And that is why the Savior himself was always proclaiming. The law and the prophets prophesied until John. So if there is still king or prophet or vision among the Jews, they do well to deny that Christ has come. But if there is neither king nor vision, and since that time all prophecy has been sealed and city and temple taken, how can they be so irreligious? How can they so flaunt the facts as to deny Christ who has brought it all about? Again they see the heathen forsaking idols and setting their hopes through Christ on the God of Israel. Why do they yet deny Christ, who after the flesh was born of the root of Jesse and reigns henceforward? Of course, if the heathen were worshipping some other God and not confessing the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses, then they would do well to argue that God had not come. But if the heathen are honoring the same God who gave the law to Moses and the promises to Abraham, the God whose word to the Jews dishonored, why do they not recognize, or rather why do they deliberately refuse, to see that the Lord of whom the scriptures prophesied has shown forth to the world and appeared to it in a bodily form? Scripture declares it repeatedly, the Lord God has appeared to us, and again he sent forth his word and healed them, and again it was no ambassador, no angel who saved us, but the Lord himself. The Jews are afflicted like some demented person who sees the earth lit up by the sun, but denies the sun that lights it up. What more is there for their expected one to do when he comes? To call the heathen, but they are called already. To put an end to prophet and king and vision, but this too has already happened. To expose the God names of idols, it is already exposed and condemned. Or to destroy death, it is already destroyed. What then has not come to pass that the Christ must do? What is there left out or unfulfilled that the Jews should disbelieve so lightheartedly? The plain fact is, as I say, that there is no longer any king or prophet, nor Jerusalem, nor sacrifice, nor vision among them. Yet the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of God, and the Gentiles, forsaking atheism, are now taking refuge with the God of Abraham through the word, our Lord Jesus Christ. Surely then it must be plain, even to the most shameless, that the Christ has come, and that he has enlightened all men everywhere, and given them the true and divine teaching about his Father. Thus the Jews may be refuted by these and other arguments from the divine teaching.