Hippolytus of Rome, Expository Treatise Against the Jews (Fragments)

2. Let him then be introduced before us who speaks by theHoly Spirit, and says truth— David the son of Jesse. He, singing a certain strain with prophetic reference to the trueChrist, celebrated our God by the Holy Spirit, (and) declared clearly all that befell Him by the hands of the Jews in Hispassion; in which (strain) the Christ who humbled Himself and took unto Himself the form of the servant Adam, calls upon God the Father in heaven as it were in our person, and speaks thus in the sixty-ninth Psalm: Save me, O God; for the waters have come in unto my soul. I am sunk in the mire of the abyss, that is to say, in the corruption of Hades, on account of the transgression in paradise; and there is nosubstance, that is, help. My eyes failed while I hoped (or, from my hoping) upon my God; when will He come and saveme?

3. Then, in what next follows, Christ speaks, as it were, in His own person: Then I restored that, says He, which I took not away; that is, on account of the sin of Adam I endured the death which was not mine by sinning. For, OGod, You know my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from You, that is, for I did not sin, as He means it; and for this reason (it is added), Let not them be ashamed who want tosee my resurrection on the third day, to wit, the apostles.Because for Your sake, that is, for the sake of obeying You,I have borne reproach, namely the cross, when they covered my face with shame, that is to say, the Jews; whenI became a stranger unto my brethren after the flesh, and an alien unto my mother's children, meaning (by the mother) the synagogue. For the zeal of Your house, Father, has eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached You are fallen on me, and of them that sacrificedto idols. Wherefore they that sit in the gate spoke against me, for they crucified me without the gate. And they that drink sang against me, that is, (they who drink wine) at thefeast of the passover. But as for me, in my prayer unto You, O Lord, I said, Father, forgive them, namely the Gentiles, because it is the time for favour with Gentiles. Let not then the hurricane (of temptations) overwhelm me, neither let the deep (that is, Hades) swallow me up: for You will not leave my soul in hell (Hades); neither let the pit shut her mouth upon me, that is, the sepulchre. By reason of mine enemies, deliver me, that the Jews may not boast, saying, Let us consume him.

4. Now Christ prayed all this economically as man; being, however, true God. But, as I have already said, it was theform of the servant that spoke and suffered these things. Wherefore He added, My soul looked for reproach and trouble, that is, I suffered of my own will, (and) not by any compulsion. Yet I waited for one to mourn with me, and there was none, for all my disciples forsook me and fled; and for a comforter, and I found none.

5. Listen with understanding, O Jew, to what the Christ says:They gave me gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. And these things He did indeed endure from you. Hear the Holy Ghost tell you also what return He made to you for that little portion of vinegar. For the prophetsays, as in the person of God, Let their table become a snare and retribution. Of what retribution does He speak?Manifestly, of the misery which has now got hold of you.

6. And then hear what follows: Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not. And surely you have been darkened in the eyes of your soul with a darkness utter and everlasting. For now that the true light has arisen, you wander as in the night, and stumble on places with no roads, and fall headlong, as having forsaken the way that says, I am the way. Furthermore, hear this yet more serious word: And their back do you bend always; that means, in order that they may be slaves to the nations, not four hundred and thirty years as in Egypt, nor seventy as in Babylon, but bend them to servitude, he says, always. In fine, then, how do you indulge vain hopes, expecting to be delivered from the misery which holds you? For that is somewhat strange. And not unjustly has he imprecated this blindness of eyes upon you. But because you covered the eyes of Christ, (and ) thus you beat Him, for this reason, too, you bend your back for servitude always. And whereas you poured out His blood in indignation, hear what your recompense shall be: Pour out Your indignation upon them, and let Your wrathful anger take hold of them; and, Let their habitation be desolate, to wit, their celebrated temple.

7. But why, O prophet, tell us, and for what reason, was thetemple made desolate? Was it on account of that ancient fabrication of the calf? Was it on account of the idolatry of the people? Was it for the blood of the prophets? Was it for the adultery and fornication of Israel? By no means, he says; for in all these transgressions they always found pardon open to them, and benignity; but it was because they killed the Son of their Benefactor, for He is coeternal with the Father. Whence He says, Father, let their temple be made desolate;for they have persecuted Him whom You of Your own willsmote for the salvation of the world; that is, they havepersecuted me with a violent and unjust death, and they have added to the pain of my wounds. In former time, as the Lover of man, I had pain on account of the straying of theGentiles; but to this pain they have added another, by going also themselves astray. Wherefore add iniquity to theiriniquity, and tribulation to tribulation, and let them not enter into Your righteousness, that is, into Your kingdom; but let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous, that is, with their holy fathers and patriarchs.

8. What do you say to this, O Jew? It is neither Matthew norPaul that says these things, but David, your anointed, who awards and declares these terrible sentences on account ofChrist. And like the great Job, addressing you who speak against the righteous and true, he says, You bartered theChrist like a slave, you went to Him like a robber in the garden.

9. I produce now the prophecy of Solomon, which speaks ofChrist, and announces clearly and perspicuously things concerning the Jews; and those which not only are befalling them at the present time, but those, too, which shall befall them in the future age, on account of the contumacy and audacity which they exhibited toward the Prince of Life; for the prophet says, The ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright, that is, about Christ, Let us lie in wait for the righteous, because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings and words, and upbraids us with our offending the law, and professes to have knowledgeof God; and he calls himself the Child of God. And then he says, He is grievous to us even to behold; for his life is not like other men's, and his ways are of another fashion. We are esteemed of him as counterfeits, and he abstains from our ways as from filthiness, and pronounces the end of the just to be blessed. And again, listen to this, O Jew! None of the righteous or prophets called himself the Son of God. And therefore, as in the person of the Jews, solomon speaks again of this righteous one, who is Christ, thus: He was made to reprove our thoughts, and he makes his boast thatGod is his Father. Let us see, then, if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him; for if thejust man be the Son of God, He will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies. Let us condemn him with a shameful death, for by his own saying he shall be respected.

10. And again David, in the Psalms, says with respect to the future age, Then shall He (namely Christ) speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. And again Solomon says concerning Christ and the Jews, thatwhen the righteous shall stand in great boldness before the face of such as have afflicted Him, and made no account of His words, when they see it they shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the strangeness of Hissalvation; and they, repenting and groaning for anguish ofspirit, shall say within themselves, This is He whom we had sometimes in derision and a proverb of reproach; we fools accounted His life madness, and His end to he withouthonour. How is He numbered among the children of God, and His lot is among the saints? Therefore have we erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness bath not shined unto us, and the sun of righteousness rose not on us. We wearied ourselves in the way of wickedness and destruction; we have gone through deserts where there layno way: but as for the way of the Lord, we have not knownit. What has our pride profited us? All those things are passed away like a shadow.

[The conclusion is missing.]