Author: Athanasius of Alexandria
Date: c. AD 318
Related:
• On the Incarnation of the Word
• Athanasius of Alexandria
Introduction
Having completed On the Incarnation, his apologetic showing why the incarnation, death and resurrection of God the Word were necessary in order to reverse the consequences of the fall and overcome death, now Athanasius directly confronts the Jews regarding their inability or refusal to recognize Jesus as the Christ and incarnate God. Athanasius draws upon both scripture and history to make his case.
Answering the Jews
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We have dealt thus far with the Incarnation of our Savior, and have found clear proof of the resurrection of his body and his victory over death. Let us now go further and respond to the unbelief and the ridicule with which Jews and Gentiles respectively regard these same facts. It seems that in both cases the points at issue are the same, namely the unseemliness of the cross and of God the Word’s becoming man. But we have no hesitation in taking up the argument against these objections, for the proofs on our side are extremely clear.
The unbelieving Jews may be refuted from the scriptures which they themselves read; for from beginning to end the inspired book clearly teaches these things both in its entirety and in its actual words. Prophets foretold the marvel of the Virgin and of the birth from her, saying, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Emmanuel,Isaiah 7:14. which means God with us.”Matthew 1:23 And Moses, that truly great man in whose word the Jews trust so implicitly, also recognized the importance and truth of the matter. He puts it thus: “A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a man shall rise out of Israel. He shall break in pieces the rulers of Moab.”Numbers 24:17. And, again, “How beautiful are your dwellings, O Jacob, your tents, O Israel. Like wooded valleys offering shade, and like gardens by the rivers, like tents the Lord pitched, like cedars beside the waters. A man shall come forth from his seed, and he shall rule many nations.”Numbers 24:5-7. And, again, Isaiah says, “Before the child shall be old enough to call father or mother, one shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria from under the eyes of the king of Assyria.”Isaiah 8:4. These words, then, foretell that a man shall appear.
And scripture proclaims further that the one who is to come is Lord of all, saying, “Behold, the Lord sits on a swift cloud and shall come to Egypt, and the man-made images of Egypt shall be shaken.”Isaiah 19:1. And it is from Egypt also that the Father calls him back, saying, “Out of Egypt have I called my Son.”Hosea 11:1.
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Moreover, the Scriptures are not silent even about his death. On the contrary, they refer to it with the utmost clearness. For they have not feared to speak also of its cause – that he endured it not for his own sake, but for the immortality and salvation of all – and they record also the plotting of the Jews against him and all the indignities which he suffered at their hands. Certainly no one who reads the scriptures can plead ignorance of the facts as an excuse for error. There is this passage, for instance: “A man that is afflicted and knows how to bear weakness, for his face is turned away. He was dishonored and not esteemed. He bears our sins and suffers for our sakes, and we considered him to be distressed and afflicted and ill-treated. But he was wounded because of our lawlessness and was made weak because of our sins. Chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his bruise we are healed.”Isaiah 53:3-5.
Be amazed at the Word’s love for human beings, that he is dishonored for our sake, that we might be honored “For we all,” it goes on, “have strayed like sheep, man has strayed from his path, and the Lord has delivered him up for our sins; and he himself did not open his mouth at the ill-treatment. Like a sheep he was led to slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he opened not his mouth; in his humiliation his judgment was taken away.”Isaiah 53:6-8. Then, so that no one may suppose from his suffering that he is a mere human being, scripture shows what power worked in him: “Who shall declare of what lineage he comes?” it says, “for his life is taken away from the earth. By the lawlessnesses of my people he was brought to death. I will appoint evil men for his burial and the rich men for his death. For he committed no lawlessness, nor was deceit found in his mouth. The Lord wishes to cleanse him of his wound.”Isaiah 53:8-10.
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You have heard the prophecy of his death. Do you now want to know what is indicated about the cross? For even this is not passed over in silence: on the contrary, the saints proclaim it with great plainness. Moses foretells it first, with a loud voice, saying, “You shall see your Life hanging before your eyes, and shall not believe.”Deuteronomy 28:66. After him the prophets also testified, saying, “But as an innocent lamb I was brought to be offered, though I was ignorant of it. They plotted evil against me, saying, ‘Come, let us cast wood into his bread, and wipe him out from the land of the living.”Jeremiah 11:18-19. And, again, “They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones, they divided my garments among them, and cast lots for my clothing.”Psalm 21:17-19. Now a death lifted up taking place on wood can be none other than the cross; it is only in that death that the hands and feet are pierced.
Besides this, since the time the Savior dwelt among men, all nations everywhere have begun to know God; and this too holy scripture expressly mentions. “There shall be the Root of Jesse,” it says, “and he shall arise up to rule the nations. On Him the nations shall set their hope.”Isaiah 11:10.
These are just a few things in proof of what has taken place; but indeed all scripture is full of things that refute the unbelief of the Jews. For which of the righteous and holy prophets and patriarchs named in the divine scriptures ever had his bodily birth from a virgin only? Was not Abel born from Adam, Enoch from Jared, Noah from Lamech, Abraham from Terah, Isaac from Abraham, and Jacob from Isaac? Was not Judah from Jacob, and Moses and Aaron from Amram? Was not Samuel the son of Elkanah, David the son of Jesse, Solomon the son of David, Hezekiah of Ahaz, Josiah of Amon, Isaiah of Amos, Jeremiah of Hilkiah and Ezekiel of Buzi? Did not each of these have a father as author of his being? Then who is born of a virgin only? For the prophet makes much of this sign. And of all those people, which had his birth announced to the world by a star in the heavens? When Moses was born his parents hid him. David was unknown even in his own neighborhood, so that mighty Samuel himself was ignorant of his existence and asked whether Jesse had yet another son. Abraham had already become great when he was known to his kin. But with Christ it was otherwise. The witness to his birth was not a human, but a star, shining in the heavens from which he came down.
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But what king ever reigned and took trophies from his enemies “before he was able to cry out ‘father’ or ‘mother,’”Isaiah 8:4. Was not David thirty years old when he came to the throne and Solomon a grown young man? Did not Joash begin his reign at the age of seven, and Josiah, after him, at about the same age, both of them fully able by that time to call father or mother?
Who is there, then, that was reigning and despoiling his enemies almost before he was born? Let the Jews, who have investigated the matter, tell us if there was ever such a king in Israel or Judah – a king upon whom all the nations set their hopes and had peace, instead of being at enmity with him on every side! As long as Jerusalem stood, there was constant war between them, and they all fought against Israel. The Assyrians oppressed Israel, the Egyptians persecuted them, the Babylonians fell upon them, and, strange to relate, even the Syrians their neighbors were at war with them. And did not David make war against Moab and smite the Syrians, and Hezekiah fear the boasting of Sennacherib? Did not Amalek make war on Moses and the Amorites oppose him, and did not the inhabitants of Jericho array themselves against Joshua the son of Nun? Did not the nations always regard Israel with implacable hostility? Then it is worth inquiring who it is, on whom the nations are to set their hopes. Obviously there must be someone, for the prophet could not have told a lie.
But did any of the holy prophets or patriarchs of old die on a cross for the salvation of all? Was any of them wounded and destroyed for the healing of all? Did the idols of Egypt fall down before any righteous man or king that came there? Abraham certainly went to Egypt, but idolatry prevailed just the same; and Moses was born there, but the deluded worship was unchanged.
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Again, does Scripture tell of anyone who was pierced in hands and feet or hung upon a tree at all, and by means of a cross perfected his sacrifice for the salvation of all? It was not Abraham, for he died in his bed, as did also Isaac and Jacob. Moses and Aaron died on the mountain, and David in his house, without anybody plotting against him. For though he had been sought by Saul, he was preserved unharmed. Isaiah was sawn asunder, but he was not hung on a tree. Jeremiah was shamefully treated but he did not die under condemnation. Ezekiel suffered, but he did so not on behalf of the people, but indicating what was going to happen to them. Moreover, all these, even when they suffered, were but men, like other men. But he whom the scriptures declare to suffer on behalf of all is called not merely man but the Life of all, even though in fact he shared our human nature. “You shall see your life hanging before your eyes,”Deuteronomy 28:66. they say, and “Who shall declare of what lineage he comes?”Isaiah 53:8. With all the saints we can trace their descent from the beginning, and see exactly how each came to be; but the divine scripture maintains that the lineage of him who is the Life cannot be declared.
Who is it, then, of whom divine scriptures say these things? Who is so great that even the prophets foretell such mighty things about him? No one in the scriptures at all, save the common Savior of all, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who proceeded from a virgin, and appeared on earth as man, whose earthly lineage cannot be declared, because he alone derives his body from no human father, but from a virgin alone. We can trace the paternal descent of David and Moses and of all the patriarchs. But with the Savior we cannot do so. For it was he himself who caused the star to announce his bodily birth, and it was fitting that the Word, when he came down from heaven, should have his sign in heaven too, and fitting that the King of creation, on his coming forth, should be clearly known by all the world. He was born in Judea, yet men from Persia came to worship him.
It is he who, even before his appearing in the body, won the victory over the opposing demons and a triumph over idolatry, that is, all the heathen who from every region have turned from the tradition of their fathers and the false worship of idols and are now placing their hope in Christ and dedicating themselves to him. The thing is happening before our very eyes, here in Egypt; and thereby another prophecy is fulfilled, for at no other time have the Egyptians ceased from their false worship save when the Lord of all, riding as on a cloud, came down here in the body and brought the error of idols to nothing and won over everyone to himself, and through himself to the Father.
He is the one who was crucified with the sun and moon as witnesses; and by his death salvation has come to all men, and all creation has been redeemed. He is the Life of all, and it is he who, like a sheep, gave up his own body to death, his life for ours and our salvation.
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Yet the Jews disbelieve this. This argument does not satisfy them. Therefore let them be persuaded by other reasons 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 I am,’ to the nation that did not call on my name. I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and rebellious people.”Isaiah 65:1-2.
Who is this 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 prophet is this, 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 bodiless by nature, appeared in a body for our sake and suffered for us all.
And if even this is not enough for them, there is other overwhelming evidence by which they may be silenced. The scripture says, “Strengthen the weak hands feeble knees; take courage, you of little faith, be strong and do not fear. Behold, our God will recompense judgment, he himself will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear, and the mute tongue shall speak clearly.”Isaiah 35:3-6. What can they say to 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 Judea? The leper Naaman was cleansed, it is true, but no deaf man heard nor did any lame man walk. Elijah and Elisha raised the dead, but no one blind from birth received his sight.
Raising the dead is truly a great thing, but it is not like the wonder wrought by the Savior. 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 had never taken place before.
So when did these things happen, apart from 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 even the Jews who saw it testified to the fact that such things had never before occurred. “Since the world began, it has never been heard of that anyone should open the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”John 9:32-33.
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But surely they cannot fight against 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 topic about which they are always chattering most brazenly, in spite of all the evidence against them. But on this one point, above all, they shall be refuted all the more, not by ourselves but by the most wise Daniel, for he signifies the actual date of the Savior’s coming as well as his Divine sojourn in our midst, saying, “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to make an end of sin, and for sins to be sealed up and iniquities blotted out, and to make reconciliation for wrongdoings, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Holy One of holies. You shall know therefore and understand from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem, until Christ the Prince.”Daniel 9:24-25.
Perhaps regarding the other prophecies, they could find excuses to put off what is written to a future time, but what can they say to this? How can they face it at all? Not only does it expressly refer to the Anointed One, that is the Christ, it declares that he who is to be anointed is not merely human but is himself the holy of holies! And it says that Jerusalem is to stand until his coming, and then prophet and vision shall cease in Israel.
David was anointed of old, and Solomon, and Hezekiah, but Jerusalem and the place still stood, and prophets were prophesying – Gad and Asaph and Nathan, and later Isaiah and Hosea and Amos and the others. Moreover, those men who were anointed were called holy, but none of them was called the holy of holies.
Nor is it any use for the Jews to take refuge in the Babylonian captivity, and say that Jerusalem did not exist then, for what about the prophets? It is a fact that when the people went into exile, Daniel and Jeremiah were there, and Ezekiel and Haggai and Zechariah also prophesied.
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So the Jews are indulging in fiction, and transferring they present time into the future. For when did prophet and vision cease from Israel, if not now, when Christ, the holy of holies, has come? In fact it is a sign and a great proof of the coming of the Word that Jerusalem no longer stands, neither is any prophet raised up nor vision revealed among them. And it is natural that it should be so – for when he who was indicated had come, what need is there any longer of any sign to indicate him? And now that the reality has come, what further need is there of the shadow?
For this was the reason for their prophesying at all, that is, until the true righteousness should come, who redeems for the sins of all. For the same reason Jerusalem stood until the same time, in order that there men might be prepared by the types before the truth was known. So, of course, once the holy of holies had come, both vision and prophecy were sealed, and the kingdom of Jerusalem ceased at the same time. Kings were to be anointed among them only until the holy of holies was anointed.
Moses also prophesied that the kingdom of the Jews would stand until that One should come, 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.”Genesis 49:10. So the Savior himself proclaimed, “For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.”Matthew 11:13. So if there were still king or prophet or vision among the Jews, they would do well to deny that Christ is come; but if there is neither king nor vision, and since that time all prophecy has been sealed up and the city and temple are taken, then how can they be so perverse as to see what has happened and yet to deny Christ? And when they see the nations forsaking idols and setting their hopes through Christ on the God of Israel, why do they deny Christ who was born of the root of Jesse according to the flesh, and reigns henceforth? If the nations were worshiping 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 the Jews dishonored – then why do they not recognize, or rather why do they deliberately refuse to see, that the Lord prophesied in the scriptures has shone forth in the world and appeared to it in a body?
Scripture declares it repeatedly. “God is the Lord and has revealed himself to us,”Psalm 117:27. and again, “He sent forth his Word and healed them.”Psalm 106:20. And again, “It was no ambassador, nor an angel who saved us, but the Lord himself.”Isaiah 63:9. The Jews are suffering like one out of his mind who sees the earth lit up by the sun, but denies the sun that lights it up. For when the one they expect comes, what more will he do? Call the heathen? But they are called already. Cause prophet and king and vision to cease? This too has already happened. To expose the godlessness of idolatry? 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 light-heartedly? For, as we see, 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 nations, forsaking godlessness, 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. In this way one can rightly answer the Jews from these and many more passages from the divine scriptures.