Cyprian & Lactantius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Yet for the anger and envy they nursed shut up within their hearts, they offered other pretexts: that he was undoing the law God gave through Moses — namely, that he did not rest on the Sabbath but worked toward saving men, that he drained circumcision of meaning, that he removed the ban on eating pork — practices in which the sacraments of the Jewish religion reside. So for these reasons the remaining portion of the people, not yet won over to Christ, was stirred up by the priests into condemning him as godless for undoing God's law — though what he did followed not his own judgment, but God's will and the prophets' predictions. For Micah announced that a new law would be given, in this way: 'Law shall come forth out of Zion, and the Lord's utterance out of Jerusalem; he will render judgment among countless nations, refute them, and strip bare the powerful peoples.' For that earlier law given through Moses was handed down not on Mount Zion but on Mount Horeb — a law the Sibyl revealed would one day be dissolved by God's son, saying: 'But when all these things I have foretold are accomplished, then in him the whole law is dissolved.' Moses himself too — the very man through whom they received the law they cling to so obstinately, thereby falling away from God and failing to know him — had already predicted that God would send a supreme prophet, one standing above the law, to carry God's will to mankind. In Deuteronomy he set it down thus: 'The Lord spoke to me: From among their kinsmen I will raise up a prophet resembling you, placing my message in his mouth, so he may declare to them whatever I command; and whoever refuses to heed what that prophet proclaims under my name, him I will punish.' Through the very giver of the law, then, God made known that he would send his son — a law living and present — and would abolish that older law delivered through a mortal, so that by an eternal one he might once more ordain a law without end. Likewise, concerning the abolition of circumcision, Isaiah prophesied thus: 'So speaks the Lord to Judah's men and Jerusalem's inhabitants: make among yourselves something new, and plant no seed among the briars. Cut yourselves for your God — cut away the covering of your heart's flesh — or else my fury will blaze forth like fire, and no one will put it out.' Likewise Moses himself: 'In the final days God will cut away your heart's covering so you may love the Lord your God.' Likewise Joshua, son of Nun, his successor: 'The Lord told Joshua: fashion for yourself extremely sharp flint blades, then sit and cut the sons of Israel a second time.' By this he meant that a second cutting was coming — not of flesh, as the first had been, a rite the Jews still keep, but of heart and spirit, the one Christ, the true Joshua, delivered. For the prophet's words are not 'the Lord spoke to me' but 'to Joshua' — a sign that he meant not himself but Christ, the one God was addressing at that moment. That Joshua carried Christ's figure within him. Originally named Hoshea, he was renamed Joshua by Moses, who sensed what lay ahead — so that, chosen to command the army against Amalek, who assailed Israel's sons, he might defeat the foe through the pattern hidden in his new name, and guide the people into the promised territory. For that same reason he succeeded Moses — to show that the fresh law brought by Christ Jesus would take the place of the older one given through Moses. After all, cutting the flesh itself lacks any real purpose, since had God wanted this, he would simply have shaped man from the start without a foreskin at all. Instead, this second cutting stood as a figure pointing to baring the breast — meaning we are meant to live with a heart laid open and free of pretense, since the body part that gets cut bears some resemblance to the heart and is a source of shame. For this reason God commanded it be exposed, so that through this sign he might caution us against keeping the breast concealed — that is, against hiding some disgraceful deed within the recesses of conscience. This, then, is the cutting of the heart the prophets speak of — the one God shifted from mortal flesh onto the soul, since the soul alone endures. For wanting, out of his everlasting devotion, to look after our life and welfare, he offered us repentance through that cutting: if we lay bare the heart — meaning if we confess our sins and make amends enough before God — pardon is granted us, pardon withheld from the defiant and from those who hide their misdeeds, before him who examines not the face, as a man would, but the hidden depths within the breast. The ban on pork points toward this same lesson. In ordering them to abstain from it, God's main intent was that they grasp the need to keep away from sin and impurity. This creature is mired in filth and uncleanness, never once raising its gaze skyward, but with its whole body and snout bent toward the ground, forever enslaved to its stomach and its feed; while alive it offers no other use, unlike other creatures — some carry riders, some assist in farm labor, some haul wagons by the neck, some bear burdens on their backs, some supply clothing from their hides, some yield milk in abundance, and some stand guard over homes. He therefore prohibited eating swine's flesh — meaning he forbade copying the pig's manner of living, an animal raised for nothing but slaughter — so that, enslaved to appetite and pleasure, people would not become useless for practicing justice and thereby meet death; likewise so they would not wallow in filthy lusts as the pig does when it gorges in mud, or become slaves to earthly idols, smearing themselves with mire. For those who worship gods — that is, mud and soil — smear themselves with filth. In this way every precept of Jewish law aims at displaying righteousness, for they were delivered indirectly, so spiritual truths might be understood through fleshly figures.
So then, as Christ was bringing to completion what God had willed and had foretold many centuries earlier through his prophets, they, stirred up by these very events and ignorant of the sacred scriptures, banded together to condemn their own God. Knowing this was coming, and repeatedly saying he had to suffer and be killed for the salvation of many, he nonetheless withdrew along with his disciples. This was not an attempt to dodge what he had to bear, but a lesson in how one ought to act amid any persecution, lest anyone seem to have caused it by personal wrongdoing; he further declared that betrayal awaited him at the hand of one of his own. So Judas, drawn in by a payment, delivered him over to the Jews. They seized him and brought him before Pontius Pilate, then serving as governor of Syria, demanding crucifixion, with no charge against him beyond his claim to be God's son and king of the Jews — and beyond his statement, 'Tear down this temple, built over forty-six years, and in three days, without hands, I will raise it again,' meaning his own suffering was near and that once killed by the Jews he would rise on the third day. For he himself had been God's true temple. They hounded him over these words as though they were cursed and blasphemous. Once Pilate had heard this, and the man offered no word in his own defense, Pilate declared that he saw nothing in him deserving condemnation. But those thoroughly unjust accusers, joined by the crowd they had roused, began shouting back, clamoring fiercely for his crucifixion. Pontius then gave in, worn down both by their outcry and by the urging of Herod the tetrarch, who dreaded losing his throne; yet he did not himself pass sentence, handing him instead to the Jews so they could judge him under their own law. They led him off after scourging him with whips, and before nailing him up they made sport of him: dressing him in a purple-hued robe, crowning him with thorns, they saluted him mockingly as king, gave him gall to eat, and mixed him a draught of vinegar. After that they spat on his face and beat him with open hands. A dispute broke out among the executioners over his clothing, and his tunic and cloak went to whoever won the throw of the lots they cast between themselves. Through all of this, he let no sound escape his lips, as if he had no voice at all. Then they strung him up between two condemned robbers, placing him at the center, and nailed him to the wood. What am I even to mourn first in a crime this vast, or what words could capture such an outrage? This is not the cross of Gavius I am recounting, the one Cicero pursued with every ounce of his rhetorical strength, pouring out the whole wellspring of his genius, denouncing as a monstrous wrong that a Roman citizen had been hoisted onto a cross in defiance of every statute. Yet however innocent that man was, however undeserving of such a penalty, he remained a mortal, harmed by a wicked man who cared nothing for justice. What, then, are we to say of the outrage of this cross, where God himself was hoisted up and nailed down by his own worshippers? Who could ever be found eloquent enough, so richly stocked with matter and language, whose speech, pouring out in such overflowing abundance, might rightly lament that cross which the world itself, together with all its elements, mourned? Both the prophets, through their spoken word, and the Sibyl, through her verses, had already made known that events would run this course. In Isaiah it is found written thus: 'I am not defiant, nor do I resist: my back I offered to the lash, my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn my face from the disgrace of being spat upon.' Likewise David in Psalm 34: 'Whips were massed against me, yet they took no notice; they were undone, feeling no remorse; they put me to the test and jeered at me with mockery, grinding their teeth against me.' The Sibyl too showed the very same things to come: 'Into lawless hands, hands of the unbelieving, he shall later come; with impure hands they will strike God with blows, and with foul mouths spit venomous spittle upon him; and his innocent back they will simply hand over to the whips.' Likewise, regarding his silence, which he kept unbroken right up to death, Isaiah spoke again in this way: 'He was brought forward like a sheep for sacrifice, and like a lamb before its shearers utters no sound, so he did not open his mouth.' And the Sibyl mentioned above: 'And though struck he shall stay silent, so that none may discover what word he speaks or whence he came, until he speaks to the dead; and he shall wear the crown woven of thorns.' As for the food and drink offered him before they nailed him up, David says in Psalm 68: 'They placed gall into my food, and for my thirst gave me vinegar to drink.' The Sibyl too proclaimed this same event beforehand: 'For food they gave bile, and for thirst, vinegar — this is the table they will set to display their inhospitality.' And a different Sibyl scolds the land of Judea in these lines: 'Senseless as you are, you failed to recognize your own God at play among mortal minds, but instead crowned him with a fearsome wreath of thorns and mixed him bitter gall.' That the Jews would raise a hand against their own God and put him to death, these prophetic witnesses had already foretold. In Ezra it is written thus: 'Ezra spoke to the people: this Passover is our deliverer and our shelter. Reflect, and let it settle into your heart, that we are meant to bring him low as a sign; afterward we will place our hope in him, so that this place will not be forsaken for all time, declares the Lord God of hosts. Should you refuse to trust him or heed what he announces, you will become a laughingstock among the nations.' From this it is clear the Jews have no hope left except by washing away that blood and placing their trust in the very man they killed. Isaiah too marks out their crime, saying: 'In his lowliness his sentence was lifted away. Who can tell of his origin? For his life will be cut off from the land, led off to death because of my people's crimes. And I will assign the wicked to his burial place and the rich to his death, since he committed no wrong nor spoke deceit with his mouth. For this he will gain many as his own and divide the plunder of the mighty, because he was given over to death and counted among wrongdoers; he himself carried the sins of many and was handed over on account of their crimes.' David too in Psalm 93 (94): 'They will hunt down the life of the righteous and pass sentence on innocent blood, yet the Lord has become my shelter.' Likewise Jeremiah: 'Lord, make it known to me, and I shall understand. Then I saw their intentions: like a guileless lamb I was brought to slaughter; against me they schemed a plot, saying, come, let us throw wood into his bread, and wipe his life from the land, and his name shall be remembered no longer.' Now the wood stands for the cross and the bread for his body, since he is the sustenance and life of everyone who trusts both in the flesh he bore and the cross on which he was hung. About this Moses himself spoke still more plainly in Deuteronomy: 'Your life will hang before your very eyes, and you will be afraid by day and night, unable to trust in your own life.' The same author again, in Numbers: 'The Lord is not strung up as a mere man, nor does the son of man endure threats as one.' Zechariah too handed this down: 'And they will gaze upon me, the one they pierced through.' Likewise David in Psalm 21 (22): 'They pierced through my hands and feet, counted every one of my bones; and they themselves stared and looked on me, dividing my clothes among themselves and casting lots for my garment.' None of this, of course, was the prophet speaking about himself — he was a king and never went through such things; rather God's spirit spoke through him about one who would undergo them a thousand and fifty years afterward, that being the span reckoned from David's reign to Christ's cross. Solomon too, his son, founder of Jerusalem, foretold that the city itself would fall in retribution for that sacred cross: 'But should you turn away from me, says the Lord, and fail to keep my truth, I will drive Israel out from the land I gave them, and this house, raised for them under my name, I will cast away out of my sight entirely; Israel will become ruin and disgrace among the peoples, and this house will lie abandoned, so that everyone passing by will marvel and ask: why has God brought such harm upon this land and this house? And people will answer: because they forsook the Lord their God, pursued their king — the one most cherished by God — and tortured him in deep humiliation; that is the reason these calamities have come upon them from God.'
What more remains to say about the crime of the Jews, except that by then they had gone blind and been gripped by a madness beyond cure — reading these very words day after day, yet neither grasping them nor managing to hold themselves back from doing them? Hung up, then, and nailed fast, he called out to God with a great cry and gave up his spirit of his own accord. That very hour brought an earthquake; the temple curtain dividing its two inner chambers was ripped in two; the sun vanished all at once, and darkness covered the land from the sixth hour until the ninth. Concerning this the prophet Amos bears witness: 'On that day, declares the Lord, the sun will go down at noon, and daylight itself will grow dark; I will turn your festival days into mourning and your songs into wailing.' Likewise Jeremiah: 'She who gives birth was struck with dread, her spirit weary, and the sun went down on her while it was still midday; she was crushed and cursed — the remnant of them I will hand over to the sword before the eyes of their foes.' And the Sibyl: 'The temple veil shall be split apart, and at midday a vast, shadowy night shall fall for three hours.' Even with these events occurring, not even such heavenly signs let them recognize their crime; but since he had foretold rising from the dead on the third day, they feared that his disciples might steal the body away, leading everyone to believe he had truly risen and causing far greater turmoil among the people — so they took him down from the cross, sealed him inside a tomb, and ringed it securely with a military watch. Yet on the third day, before daybreak, a sudden tremor threw open the tomb, and while the guards — dazed and paralyzed by terror, seeing nothing — stood by, he emerged whole and living from the grave and set out for Galilee to find his disciples; and nothing was found within the tomb save the cloths that had wrapped and enclosed his body. That he would not stay among the dead but would rise on the third day — this the prophets had already sung. David in Psalm 15 (16): 'You will not leave my soul among the dead, nor allow your holy one to witness decay.' And again in Psalm 3: 'I lay down and slept, then rose, for the Lord gave me his support.' Hosea too, first among the twelve prophets, testified concerning his rising: 'This is my wise son, and so he will not now hold back amid the affliction of his children; I will pull him free from death's grip. Where now, death, is your sentence, or where your sting?' The same prophet elsewhere: 'He will restore us to life after two days, on the third day.' And so the Sibyl said he would set a limit to death after a sleep of three days: 'He shall accomplish death's portion, having slept the third day, and then, loosed from among the dead, shall come into the light, the first to reveal to the summoned the beginning of resurrection.' For by overcoming death he won life for us; no other hope of reaching immortality, then, is given to mankind, except by believing in him and taking on the bearing and enduring of Christ's cross.