'Not as a man is God hung up,' He intimates beforehand; 'or not as a son of man does He suffer threats,' He says. Thus when the Lord Himself had come, He followed these words: 'I must,' He says, 'be rejected, by the voice of Moses.' But I do not gather the whole, only the chief summits, so that the ignorant may the more easily learn the truth. But these wicked men, who seek to live deceitfully, once bloodstained, persist in feigning vain things. They make fools the more to vanish away by their words, that He was crucified, when it must needs be so for that same One. For thus He ordained it, because of the fall of the firstborn; not for that one alone, but for us also He came from heaven. He established a people new, firm in His name; according to the prophecies Christ fulfilled all things.
'Behold, I make new things,' Isaiah cries in Him, 'and let no one reckon the former things nor follow the ancient.' These new things are this day brought forth under our law: we nations have believed in Christ, by the word of Moses. He had foretold that there would be two peoples, and indeed he said the lesser people would excel. But these men, full of wickedness, now in desperate fury: 'The law was given to us,' they say; 'whence did you come?' If they oppose us, they think also to resist the Most High, who willed to be good to us... Nor do they consider this, stiff-necked with rigid bristles. What? Always they tormented the innocent, the law forsaken. So they did to God, cruel as they were wont, and yet still dare to call themselves sons of the Most High.
Now in what manner the Lord rose again, I have noted above—not from my own voice, but I have spoken the prophetic words. He had foretold to His disciples all things concerning Himself: how He would suffer at the hands of the people while Peter denied Him; and that He would rise from the tombs on the third day. He had said this very thing, and fulfilled all His words. But when He had risen, He Himself came to the apostles and stood in their midst: 'Peace be unto you,' He said. Among those disciples one was not present while they were praying; and when they told him, he began to disbelieve, and added: 'Unless I first put my finger where the nails were, or where He was pierced by the lance, I will not believe.' Then on the Lord's day He returned again to them and stood in their midst: 'Peace be unto you,' He said. And at once He approaches that unbelieving Thomas:
'Come nearer and touch My body as before. I am not a shade, such as the dead are held to be: a shade makes no footprint; consider the wound.' He stretched out His palms; and that one began to touch, and put his hand into the side where the lance had been fixed, and thereupon cast himself down in prayer: 'Thou art truly my God and Lord!' To whom He answered: 'Because thou hast seen, thou hast believed; but blessed are those after-comers, who believe at hearing the name alone.' Forty days in order He spent with them, and taught them many things that would come upon the world. After His ascension they wrought many miracles, by His word they healed the sick in the name of Christ. If He were such as these treacherous men say, mighty works would not have been done through Him by the word of the witnesses.
He ascended into the heavens, as also the Scripture sang: 'Receive the King, you princes of the heavens, on high!' What more need is there to recite all things from the law? These things suffice for the unlearned, to be kept with a good heart. But if they themselves will not know God by reading these things, let them charge it to themselves, where they have come, even there where they would not. They do nothing but heart; for the rest, concerning life there is silence. What does it profit to pursue worldly things vainly on earth, and to know the riches of kings, and their wars? And to know the madman's forum, skilled in law—because laws waver, lest perchance they be ruled by reward? Let one be a defender, let one be a divine orator, he shall profit nothing in death, if while alive he denied Christ. Rather let him first seek where his life is brought, if he be wise; if otherwise, he is censured.
They read the laws and learn wondrous pleadings, but in their dealings they overpower the wretched on whose behalf they speak. Unhappy is he who comes into their mouth; they bear off the praises, and he the victory in losses. The wretched man stands mute in the midst, who grieves more within; they thunder with their mouth, and he by his silence over money. Meanwhile the adorned voice clamours by the day, and often the worse cause becomes the better by giving a little more. Hence the wise man seeks his price, hence he rejoices to win; even if he act wrongly, so long as he is but victor, he ails. He treats nothing of his own cause, while he strives for gain; he undertakes another's hope and casts his own behind. Many are snatched away by the success of the world's wood; while they rejoice in brief things, they remain apart from the grace of Christ.
While they covet many things with the eye, while they seek to increase, God is nothing to them but the life of the world. He is busy for the belly; the daily contest is for that, and he spurns the true contest for eternal salvation. Whoever is, as it were, vigilant for his money-bag, is praised as shrewd; but he who follows God is judged dung by them. O too happy, if anyone should avoid worldly things! Let him be a fool to others, so long as he be wise to God Most High. This is the whole hope: to believe in God, who hung upon a tree; foul though the thing be, yet it is profitable for the life to come. For that firstborn people was deceived in Him, because he called Him Son, when He is God, the Ancient One Himself. He went before them in a pillar of cloud and fire, when He freed them out of Egypt to the last man.
He commands the cruel, unspeakable deed concerning the only-begotten son, that He might prove Abraham, to whom from heaven an angel said: 'Spare him!' And He is God, and made Himself man as well, and whatever He shall be able, He will do, that dumb things may speak. He made Balaam's ass speak as he struck it, and a dog, that it might say to Simon: 'You are called by Peter!' That many might learn about him from Paul preaching, He made a lion speak to the people with a divine voice. Then, what our nature itself does not allow, He made an infant of five months speak openly to the crowd. This One was to come, mingled with our blood, that He might be seen as man, but God lay hidden in flesh. 'Not an old man shall come, nor an angel,' said Isaiah, 'but the Lord Himself shall come to show Himself to us.' Him the sea feared, Him the winds, Him Tartarus itself.
Every creature acknowledged the hidden Lord. The wicked people alone raised opposition against Him: 'Far be it, that the Lord should come in such a form!' He, as upon earth, so walked upon the waves of the sea, and commands the winds, to render the sea calm. He broke the law of Tartarus with His present word, and raises from the tombs Lazarus, stinking on the fourth day. For when one was being carried out, and had met Him: 'Arise, young man!' He said. And that one rose again from the bier. Entreated by the father for the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, now lifeless, He raises her up amid the mourners. He made the mute to speak and especially the deaf to hear, and the man born blind from the womb to see in the open air. After thirty-eight years He bade the paralytic arise, whom they marvelled at, carrying his pallet on his neck.
...and at the touching of His garment she was healed of an issue of blood. He broke five loaves for five thousand men, and again refreshed four thousand from seven. That the Lord might more fully show Himself present, He had been invited to a wedding with His mother; and when He was asked to come to aid when the wine had failed, He then bade them fill the jars more quickly with water, which He first tasted, and so commanded it to be served. Yet not even so could they recognize the Lord by His deeds, but they raged, as wicked men, to destroy Him by death. This very thing He allows, since He so decreed to suffer; if nevertheless they shall believe, then at last they shall have pardon. This is the Firstborn, foretold beforehand by the prophets, that He should be called on earth the Offspring of the Most High.
Happy are the men who place their hope in Him; for the foolish shun Him as a thing accursed. Eternity is prepared for him who believes in Christ, that man may be God's companion, living after death. The law and the prophets teach who are worthy of God of the heavens, and to whom the hidden golden ages are revealed. Through so many seers it is cried in number concerning the Son of God, and they closed the eyes of the Son of God, first called; they did not wish to walk in the light when called, but persevering, saying: 'We are the elect!' Still they befool the profane to go to the baths, whom they make clean to please God Most High. Water washes away dirt, not the inward wickedness of the heart, nor can sacrilegious things, when treated, wash away the sacred. Not thus did the Lord command sacred things to be brought to the wicked;
And again the passage that men be kept clean from idols: 'Let no one make for himself the image of a demon,' He says; for He said also to them: 'Do not serve idols.' If God commanded that one be greatly wary of idols, why do those men deceive the nations that they are made pure by washings? Rather, when they receive such men, they ought to teach them to serve no others, but only to please the Most High. While they seek to overshadow their crime concerning the death of Christ, they open the gates everywhere, that entrance be made unto them. Hence therefore they perish utterly, who think they can be made God's by water, while still conscious before to the brigand. Now he worships in vain whatever he pleases, now he seeks the holy things; he knows not where first to turn, that ignorant man, and serves idols, then again seeks the thirtieth feast; now he follows the unleavened bread, who before had sat chaste.
This did not please God, that they should be partakers of demons, who established the law, that a passage might be made therefrom. Two ways are set before you: choose which you will, for you cannot split yourself, so as to go by both; but nevertheless out of these you ought to seek the fitting one; nor fall into the jaws of brigands—be more cautious. Seek the one Lord, who seeks no sacrificial victim, that you may, when cancelled, rise again in a world made new. Why do you attend to the wicked and judge the saints unjust, who show you no word from the law? It is told of the power of God, which He wrought upon them: ... For what He does, what the heavens have created, they do not wish... so that the Lord our God willed no other to be worshipped.
It is enough for them not to recognize so great a thing, and to say: 'He spoke not, but now feigns Himself to be God.' But the Lord Himself overcame their endeavours, and indeed it pleased Him to be called the Son in this; nor would I say of myself such things to deceive, and I have removed them from the unbelieving way. When the Father shall judge, the Son shall be with Him present; but if a man do wrong, he shall be punished, the Father hating. The Father does not wish a contemptuous son to be called His own; for all goodness goes forth from the Father, nor did He make heir that one out of His own purpose; for if a man shall lose, he disowns him, the Father hating him.
He bore the whole burden, He who was the tyrant, nor does the Begetter remit anything moved by him. Why do these men presume, though they were exhorted, saying: 'Out of all the people we are dearest to the Most High'? Can a parricide of his father, always proud against him, be dear, or be rightly called heir? How much more the Lord, who has sons of His own choosing to surpass them! To the meek, the lowly, the foster-children full of obedience, the good things are divided—not to the impious nor to tyrants. The Jews had been openly adopted as sons, but in the testament the impious obtained the name. Let them charge it to themselves: bloodstained, having committed a crime, how could they be partakers of the good things? Why do they shriek against us, why do they envy us heirs? Had they but done good, they too would have been in the part of the bequest.
Nor today are they silent, and they will not believe in Christ, who had been foretold to them as saving in the law; concerning whom you have already heard how the prophets sang: that the Lord would come into the lands, whom the nations should adore. This One surely they admonish us to recognize as the Most High, who renews man and forgives former sins. For He Himself also threatens the worshippers of gods: 'The sacrificer to idols shall perish in the second death.' Whoever therefore follows gods fashioned in gold, or cast in silver or stone, in wood or in bronze, that unhappy one shall be sent into accursed fire, nor does he wholly die there, but suffers wicked torments. There are men like cattle in this their nature, who will not receive the bridle of God Most High, but wander.
Since they themselves cannot endure to bear such things from servants, into whose blood the cruel often descend. Asserting, they add: 'There is nothing after our death; while we live, this is it'; and they wallow after the manner of swine. 'Let there be no luxury that should pass us by in our age; while it is the time of life, let us enjoy all things of the world.' Undisciplined, they refuse the clemency of God, pursuing pleasures, as though this were the only life. Thus they withdraw from God, who promises that one should live for ever: they fight against the good, when the wicked is to be resisted. We all manifestly erred, persuaded by the world; but by the grace of the Lord we are called to believe the law. Therefore He came and wrought His trophies secretly, and God became man, that He might have us in the future.
But very many perish, who think to please both, idols and God, when no one can please two. There is one God in heaven, of heaven, earth, and sea, whom Moses taught to have hung upon a tree for us. Whence indeed the slothful err, that He should suffer such things, not sufficiently intent upon the mystery, the secret of God. Through the envy of the devil death entered into the world, which God secretly destroyed, born of a virgin. By which nativity the blind Jews go out of their senses, and befool the foolish, bloodstained for the crime committed. No one can plead any excuse afterward, since now there is given to us the means of believing. Not in vain did God come into the lands from heaven, but He came that He might make a people called by His name.
If anyone shall not have confessed Him in this nature, he loses even what he has lived, and too late laments amid punishments; or surely, while gray-haired he hopes, expecting to believe, the divine man is shut out from eternal life, deceased. Therefore now we ought the sooner to be mindful of Him, who promises to restore life to us after death. Moreover He adds this: that we shall be immortal, and shall enjoy by seeing what the eye had not seen before. These things shall come to pass when six thousand years are fulfilled, at which time I hope we ourselves are already on the shore of the harbour. Then man shall rise again, brought back into the contest of the sun, and rejoices in God, remembering what he was before; who, as he frail heard in his former flesh, when he is incorrupt, recognizes the promises made before.
Marvelling at what glory has thus come to man, he says: 'As I heard before, so I behold each thing.' All these alike cry out, raised from hell: 'Even as we heard before, behold we see!' All pain shall depart from the body, the ulcer too shall depart, nor shall there be any anxiety, but joys always. Whoever believes in the Three and perceives One to be present, this one shall be perpetual, reborn into the eternal ages. But some say this: 'When do we suppose these things are to come?' Receive in few words, after which deeds those things shall follow. Many signs indeed shall come to pass, the limits of so great a plague, but the beginning shall be the seventh persecution of ours. Behold, already it knocks at the gate and is forced to be, which shall quickly hurl across the Goths bursting through the river.
King Apollyon shall be with them, dire in name, who shall scatter the persecution of the saints by arms. He proceeds to Rome with many thousands of the nation, and by the decree of God takes captive in part those subdued. Many of the senators then indeed shall weep as captives, and blaspheme the God of the heavens, conquered by the barbarian. Yet these Gentiles feed the Christians everywhere, whom they seek out rather as brothers, full of joy. For the luxurious and those worshipping vain idols they persecute, and put the senate under the yoke. These evils they receive who persecuted the beloved: for five months they are slaughtered under this enemy. Meanwhile at that very time the Syrian rises up, who may terrify the foes and deliver the senate thence.
From hell he returns, who had been kept by command for the kingdom, and long preserved, known with his former body. We say, moreover, that this is the ancient Nero, who first punished Peter and Paul in the city. He himself returns again at the very end of the world, from apocryphal places, who was reserved unto this. They marvel that this very one, born hateful, should be; who, when he shall have appeared, they will think to be as a god. But before he comes, Elias shall prophesy, the time divided, in the middle of the week as its axis. When the space is fulfilled, that abominable one succeeds, whom the Jews together then adore along with the Romans. Although there shall be another whom they expect from the East, yet in our slaughter they shall rage with King Nero.
Therefore when Elias prophesies in the land of Judea, and seals the people with a sign in the name of Christ; concerning whom, since very many of them will not believe him, in wrath he beseeches the Most High that it rain not thence: the heaven shall be shut up by him, nor shall it be moistened with dew; he turns also the rivers in wrath into blood. The earth, struck by perpetual aridity, dries up, so that famine invades; there shall then also be plague in the world. Because he does these things, the tormented Jews indeed forge many false accusations against him into crimes, and first they kindle the senate to rise up in anger, and they say that Elias is an enemy to the Romans. Then thereupon the senate, moved in a body by them, beseech Nero with prayers and wicked gifts: 'Take the enemies of the people out of human affairs, through whom even our gods are trampled and not worshipped.'
But he, filled with fury and the prayers of the senate, by public conveyance snatches the prophets from the East. That he may give satisfaction to them, or at least to the Jews, he first immolates these, and so goes forth to the churches. Under whose martyrdom the tenth part of the city falls, and there perish seven thousand men full told. But the Lord takes those up into the air on the fourth day, those whom they had forbidden to be buried, lying unentombed; and they are raised up from the ground, made immortal from death, whom their enemies look up at as they go through the air. Yet not even so are they terrified, but rather grow crueller within against the people of Christ, execrating them with all hatred. For the Most High hardened the wicked hearts, just as before He had hardened Pharaoh's ears.
This harsh and wicked king therefore, Nero put to flight, bids the Christian people be driven from that very city, and adds to himself two partners as Caesars, with whom he may persecute this people with dire fury. They send out edicts also through all the judges everywhere, that they make this race of men to be without the name of Christ. They command also that incense be placed to the images, and, that no one lie hidden, that all come forth crowned. In this history, if a faithful one has refused to go, he goes forth happily; but if not, he becomes one of the crowd. No day of peace shall then be, nor offering to Christ, but everywhere blood flows, which I am overcome to describe; for tears prevail, the hand fails, hearts tremble, although it is fitting for martyrs to bear so many deaths.
Through sea, through lands, through islands and hiding-places he searches long, and they lead the accursed as a victim. These things Nero shall then do, throughout the whole space of a triennium, and in a year and a half he completes the appointed times. For whose crime a deadly vengeance shall come, that both the city and that people may be delivered up along with him, and the empire taken away, which had been wickedly filled, which long wasted all men through evil tributes. There rises up again, amid the destruction of this Nero, a king from the East with four nations thence, and invites to himself very many nations to the city, who may bring aid, although he himself is most mighty; and he shall fill the sea with ships, with many thousands, and if anyone shall meet him, he shall be slaughtered by the sword.
He first takes captive Tyre and Sidon, subdued; for from there the neighboring nations grow faint with terror. Hence plague, hence wars, hence famine, hence harsh tidings are mingled all at once, so that confusion of mind comes about. Meanwhile the trumpet suddenly sounds its blast from heaven, whose noise troubles the inmost hearts in every place. Then too a chariot of fire will be seen among the stars, and a running torch, to announce fire to the nations. At last the whole river Euphrates is dried up, that a way may be prepared for the king with those peoples. Persians, Medes together with Chaldeans and Babylonians shall come, fierce and swift, who know no compassion for any. So when this one, rising up, shall have begun to come from there, both Nero is thrown into turmoil and the senate, seen close at hand. And those three Caesars shall go forth to resist against him;
Those he slays and gives as food to the birds. The armies whose duty it is must worship the victor; and when they return into the city with changed mind, they plunder the temples and whatever is within the city, they ravage and slaughter the men with vast bloodshed; at last they bring the stripped city to fire, so that no trace of it appears any longer. At its destruction the hearts of the powerful waste away, nor do the brutish ones find out for themselves in what time they may live. This one indeed rejoiced, but the whole earth groaned; yet scarcely does fitting retribution find her. She mourns forever, she who boasted herself eternal, whose very tyrants are now already judged by the Most High. The time stands ready at its end, with Rome smoking, and the wages shall come, apportioned to the deserts of each place.
From there, however, the victor advances into the land of Judea, whom the Jews themselves expect to conquer Rome. He works many signs, that they may be able to believe him, in order to seduce them, since he is sent as an unrighteous one; yet from heaven the rendered voice of the Most High rebukes him. Out of Persia a man says of himself that he is immortal. To us Nero is made the Antichrist, that one to the Jews; these two are always the two prophets at the final end. The ruin of the City is Nero, this other the ruin of the whole earth; of whom, however, I suggest a few things which I have read among secret writings. Meanwhile, now too late, he displeases the Jews and them, and they whisper together, since they have been deceived by fraud. They cry out alike to heaven, weeping with their voice; then God Almighty, that he may bring to an end all the things I have said, shall bring forth the people hidden for a long time.
But the Jews are shut in beyond Persia by a river, whom God willed to dwell there until the end. Their captivity reduced them to remain in that same place; out of the twelve tribes, nine and a half abide there. There is no lying there, nor is there any hatred; therefore no son dies before his parents; nor do they bewail the dead nor mourn after our fashion, since they await the resurrection that is to come. They do not feed on any living creature with added flesh-foods, but only on vegetables, which are without shed blood. Full of righteousness they live with bodies undefiled; among them impious astrology exercises no powers. No fevers come upon them, no savage colds, since they obey the whole law in purity; which we ourselves also shall follow, living in purity.
Only death was present, and toil, for the rest were stilled. This was the people which is now set apart outside. When the river is dried up they shall make their way back into the land of Judea; with them God too shall come to fulfill his promises; the whole journey through, the people exults at God's presence. All things grow green before them, all things rejoice, creation itself is glad to receive the saints: in every place fountains spring up ready to be, where the people of the Most High passes with heavenly awe. The clouds make a shade for them, lest they be afflicted by the sun, and lest they grow weary, the mountains themselves bow down beneath them; for an angel of the High One shall be sent before them, to grant them a peaceful guidance as they go. These advance lightly without toil as they go, and like lions, wherever they pass, they lay all waste.
Nor indeed shall any legion be able to resist against them, if it bring war, since God himself is with them. They storm the nations, they cast down the cities as well, by God's permission they empty all the colonies, and they are enriched with gold and silver by plundering, and thus honored they chant hymns together alike. But soon they hasten to the holy ancestral city, for that terrible tyrant takes fright and flees to the kings of the North with great commotion, whence he snatches a people, that it may stand as if for battle against. But while they hasten with the army of God, the rebels are laid low upon the ground by the angels when the battle is joined, and the adulterer himself and the false prophet, once seized, are cast alive into the lake under fiery punishment.
And their chief men, the prefects or the legates, are reduced to the rank of servants, the wicked beneath the saints. Meanwhile the saints enter into the holy colony, that they may receive God's promises, rejoicing without end. They entreat God on behalf of the dead, that they may rise again, which he himself promised long ago concerning the first resurrection. God then begins to be angry with his enemies, and the appointed day, since it has come for the wicked. But when he begins to judge the world by fire, he spares the godly, and the fire falls upon the impious. Scarce do a few remain, who may report such deeds, and those who are reserved escape, that they may serve the righteous. After the persecution of the saints and so great a slaughter, it draws near that there should come a day detestable and burning.
Behold, heaven sounds hoarse, yet echoing everywhere, which makes the whole frightened world fall into ruin. The sun flees heedlessly, suddenly the image of night comes, and God cries out: How long did you think I would endure? At his given signal plague rushes through the whole upper air, with the crash of thunder the onset of fire descends. Then one bolt after another is hurled from the stars, a fiery tempest, kept in reserve for so many years, breaks loose; the pestilential ruin roars, the earth trembles, stirred up, nor does the whole human race foresee whither it may turn itself. The stars of heaven fall, the heavenly bodies are judged together with us: the dwellers of heaven are thrown into turmoil, while the ruin of the age is wrought. There shall then be no help and an empty cry; no ship shall receive a man, no hiding place; nor do those help him whom before he worshiped as great:
Each one busies himself for his own sake, but it profits him nothing; it shall profit only those who have been marked for Christ; dew shall be for them, but for the rest a deadly punishment. A part of the unbelievers is kept gently scorched, that their own kind may again bewail itself at the very last. Wherever men turn themselves, the fiery force seethes; the very air of the world, which pleased before, is consumed. What shall I say of the crashes of heaven assailing with thunderbolt, when the wrath gathered through so many years is all poured forth? Hence fire, hence thunders, hence whirlwinds, so many evils, seethe, and the sky is snatched away by a sudden force of death into the shadow. Partly the trembling earth loosens its foundations... partly the thunders shatter the firm ramparts; and the walls are thrown into confusion like dust into the breezes; rocks fly, the roofs of houses quake with the winds.
The fatherlands are laid waste, every city is overthrown... so that heaven hands them over to ruin in a moment. So many crashes, so great thunderings and so many wrecks who shall be able to bear, or to flee so great shipwrecks? What shall the wretched mother then do for her sweet little one? But if the father loves his son, what does it profit him? Woe to those who flee from the Lord, woe also to the wicked without Christ, whose ones rejoicing are judged together with the piously weeping! Meanwhile all nature laments with bellowings, until at last the completed heavenly fury ceases. Then for seven months the earth shall be cleansed by fire, and he who was lowly, coming from heaven, is seen. With him descend the angels of eternal brightness, the tombs are broken open, the just bodies rise up;