Engaging the Bible in Mission Theology Scholarship: Christian Mission in the Early Church: Christian - Jewish Dialogue
Engaging the Bible in Mission Theology Scholarship:
Christian Mission in the Early Church: Christian - Jewish Dialogue
The following is an outline of points from some of the early Christian literature in the first several centuries (scholarship from a very long time ago!). It offers a look at how Scripture was used in Christian dialogue with the Jews. The intention here is only descriptive, although one can see the desperate need for a more narrative theological reading of the Bible, and for a more contextual approach to exegesis.
A. Spurious Letter of Ignatius to the Antiochians (uncertain date)
This work argues first from Moses and then from the prophets as a twofold witness to Jesus’ identity.
1. Proof from Moses about Jesus (section 2):
*’The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord’ (Gen. 19.24)
*’Let Us make man after our image’ (Gen. 1.26)
*Jesus’ incarnation: ‘A prophet shall the Lord raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me’ (Dt. 18.15)
2. From the Prophets (section 3):
*Jesus’ divinity: ‘A Son...on whose shoulder the government is from above; and His name is called the Angel of great counsel...the strong and mighty God’ (Is. 9.6)
*Jesus’ incarnation: ‘Behold a virgin shall be with Child...’ (Is. 7.14;
Mt. 1.23)
*Jesus’ Passion: ‘He was led as a sheep to the slaughter....’ (Is. 53.7)
*Jesus’ Passion: ‘I also was an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed (Jer.
11.19–not prophetic)
3. The proofs continue from the Gospels in section 4.
B. The Epistle to Diognetus
1. Jewish sacrifice compared to pagan sacrifice: ‘But those who imagine that,
by means of blood, and the smoke of sacrifices and burnt-offerings they offer sacrifices [acceptable] to Him, and that by such honours they show Him respect–these, by supposing that they can give anything to Him who stands in need of nothing, appear to me in no respect to differ from those who studiously confer the same honour on things destitute of sense....’ (3).
2. The author simply takes Jewish food laws, Sabbaths, boasting, circumcision, fastings, new moons to be ridiculous (4). No Scriptural argument, such as we find in the Epistle to Barnabas is proffered. The ease with which these are dismissed suggests that the Jews are not the author’s concern so much as making the argument that Christians ‘are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech....’ (5).
C. The Epistle of Barnabas
1. Jewish sacrifices are abolished by the prophets: Is. 1.11-14; Jer. 7.22; Zech.
8.17; Ps. 51.19 (2).
2. Jewish fasts are not true fasts: Is. 58.4-10 (3).
3. Jewish covenant is not both theirs and ours, but the Jews lost it, as was (foreshadowed) when Moses’ first covenant written by the finger of God was destroyed due to Israel’s idolatry and was rewritten by Moses Himself (Ex. 31.18; 34.28) (4). Towards the end of ch. 4, the author states that Israel was abandoned, with a quotation from Mt. 20.16 or 22.14 (‘many are called, but few are chosen’).
4. Jesus’ death (ch. 5):
a. ‘For it is written concerning Him, partly with reference to Israel, and partly to us; and [the Scripture] saith thus; ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities: with His stripes we are healed. He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb which is dumb before its shearer’ (Is. 53.5, 7; later v. 8 is loosely quoted).
b. ‘When I shall smite the Shepherd, then the sheep of the flock shall
be scattered’ (Zech. 8.7)
c. Pss. 22.21, 17, and 119.120 are inaccurately quoted: ‘Spare my soul from the sword, fasten my flesh with nails; for the assemblies of the wicked have risen up against me’
d. Is. 50.6f: ‘Behold, I have given my back to scourges, and my cheeks to strokes, and I have set my countenance as a firm rock’ (ch. 6 continues the quotation from vv. 8 and 9).
e. Is. 8.14; 28.16: ‘Since as a mighty stone He is laid for crushing, behold I cast down for the foundations of Zion a stone, precious, elect, a corner-stone, honourable (ch. 6)
f. Jesus’ flesh is the stone the builders rejected (Ps. 118.22).
g. Ps. 22.17; 118.12: ‘The assembly of the wicked surrounded me; they encompassed me as bees do a honeycomb’ and ‘upon my garment they cast lots’ (Ps. 22.19)
5. Word against Israel (ch. 6)
Is. 8.9: ‘Woe to their soul, because they have counselled an evil counsel against themselves, saying, Let us bind the just one, because he is displeasing to us’ (2nd half of the quote is from Wisd. 2.12).
6. Typological interpretation of Ex. 33.1; Lev. 20.24 (enter the good land...flowing with milk and honey): the new creation in these last days leads to a non-literal interpretation: ‘As the infant is kept alive first by honey, and then by milk, so also we, being quickened and kept alive by the faith of the promise and by the word, shall live ruling over the earth’–which is still future for Christians (ch. 6).
7. Gen. 22: Binding of Isaac a type of Christ’s sacrifice (ch. 7). This sacrifice would be for sins (the author thinks he is quoting a prophet for this point).
8. The goat sent away into the desert with the sins of the people on it is a type of Christ (Lev. 16; ch. 7).
9. The red heifer offered for sin is a type of Christ (there are no quotations, but the author seems certain of the practice) It bears some similarity with the sacrifice on the day of atonement (Lev. 16; ch. 8)
10. Circumcision is of the heart: Jer. 4.4. An evil angel deceived the Jews that it was of the flesh. Deut. 10.16: ‘Circumcise the stubbornness of your heart, and harden not your neck’; Jer. 9.25f: ‘...all the nations are
uncircumcised in the flesh, but this people are uncircumcised in heart’. Abraham’s circumcision of 318 men (confusing Gen. 17.26f and 14.14): ten and eight are ‘I’ and ‘H’ Greek letters–the first two letters of ‘Jesus’–and 300 is the letter ‘T’, representing the cross. Abraham’s circumcision pointed to Jesus. (Ch. 9).
11. Food laws of Moses should be taken ‘in spirit’ (ch. 10). The various foods are interpreted as characters with whom one should not associate. ‘But how was it possible for them to understand or comprehend these things? We, then, rightly understanding his commandments, explain them as the Lord intended. For this purpose He circumcised our ears and our hearts, that we might understand these things’ (ch. 10).
12. Baptism and the Cross foreshadowed in the Scriptures. Yet the quotations are obscure. Ps. 1.3-6 is seen to refer to both baptism and the cross: ‘The man who doeth these things shall be like a tree planted by the courses of waters, which shall yield its fruit in due season....’
13. The cross in the Scriptures:
*’And when shall these things be accomplished? And the Lord saith, When a tree shall be bent down, and again arise, and when blood shall flow out of wood’ (unknown reference).
*Moses’ putting one weapon on another on the hill, arms outstretched, to win the battle (cf. Ex. 17.9ff–but has he confused Moses rod and the ‘banner’ as two sticks in the form of a cross?). The author adds Is. 65.2: ‘All day long I have stretched forth My hands to an unbelieving people and one that gainsays My righteous way’
*Num. 21.9–Moses makes a life-giving serpent to deliver people from the bites of poisonous snakes. This is a type of Christ.
14. Jesus is not the son of David but of God: Ps. 110.1 (Mt. 22.43-45 is necessary for this reading): David called Christ ‘Lord’ (and so not his son but God’s son)
15. Is. 45.1: ‘The Lord said to Christ, my Lord, whose right hand I have holden, that the nations should yield obedience before Him; and I will break in pieces the strength of kings’–David called Christ ‘Lord’.
16. The Christians, not the Jews, are the heirs of the covenant:
*The two nations in Rebecca’s womb are Christians and Jews–the elder serves the younger (Gen. 25) (13).
*Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, when blessed by Isaac: the younger receives the blessing that the elder should have received (Gen. 48) (13).
*Abraham believed God and had righteousness imputed to him and became the father of nations which believe in the Lord while uncircumcised (13).
*The Jews had the role of preparing the way for the Gentiles (Is. 42.6f;
49.6; 61.1f) (ch. 14).
17. False and true sabbaths: Ex. 20.8//Deut. 5.12 calls for sanctifying the Sabbath with clean hands and a pure heart. This was not possible until wickedness was removed. Also, Is. 1.13 says that God cannot abide Israel’s new moons and Sabbaths (ch. 15).
18. The literal Temple and the spiritual Temple: Is. 40.12; 66.1 (and perhaps Is. 49.17 LXX) set God above any earthly habitation (ch. 16). Another
misquote suggests the Temple would be destroyed. Dan. 9.24-27; Hag. 2.10 are applied to the Temple existing in a pure heart–God dwells in us.
D. Justin Martyr
1. Dialogue With Trypho the Jew
Trypho the Jew asks Justin, ‘Explain to us just what is your opinion of [providence and judgment], and what is your idea of God, and what is your philosophy’ (1). Justin’s arguments include:
a. Justin turned away from Platonic philosophy with its emphasis on reason, as though God could be perceived by the mind alone, and became a Christian: No one can understand the truths of the prophets, who themselves offered no proof but were inspired by the Holy Spirit (note: their prophecies have come true and they worked miracles) without enlightenment by God and His Christ (4-7).
b. The authority of Scripture is agreed upon by Trypho and Justin.
*Justin speaks of: ‘Holy Spirit of prophecy’ (ch. 32), ‘a psalm, dictated to David by the Holy Spirit’ (ch. 34)
*No scripture contradicts another (65)
*Thus through Scripture Justin shows Trypho two things (39): 1. The Jews were disobedient; 2. Jesus is Christ. Yet Scripture belongs to the Christians, not the Jews, ‘for we believe them’ (ch. 29).
1. Types:
Passover lamb a type of Christ (40)
Two goats a type of Christs two advents (40)
Offering of flour a type of Eucharistic bread (41)
12 bells of high priest’s robe a type of 12 apostles, who relied on Christ’s power, Eternal Priest (42)
‘for Christ is King, and Priest, and God, and Lord, and angel, and man, and captain, and stone, and a Son born, and first made subject to suffering, then returning to heaven, and again coming with glory, and He is preached as having the everlasting Kingdom: so I prove from all the Scriptures’ (34).
2. Christ’s birth was foretold:
a. Is. 53.8: a mystery
b. Is. 7.10-16: a virgin birth (43)
1. Trypho objects (66): (i) the passage has to do with Hezekiah; (ii) ‘young woman’ does not mean ‘virgin’; (iii) the Greeks say Perseus was born of Danae, a virgin (67)
2. Justin: (i) pagan religious similarities are the devil’s emulations: Baccus, born of Jupiter and Semele, died, rose again, ascended to heaven; Hercules, born of Jove, ascended to heaven at death; Aesculapius, raiser of dead, healer of all diseases; mysteries of Mithras (69, 70);
(ii) Jews removed some Scriptures which may be Christological (72); Jesus was born of a virgin (78).
3. Can one who believes Jesus is Christ and who yet lives by Mosaic Law be saved? [Or, what was the place of the Mosaic Law in salvation?]
*Those who were righteous before Christ came and were under the Law shall be saved (45)
*Nobody now obeys all the Mosaic Law since one cannot offer the paschal lamb
*Patriarchs only observed circumcision and will be
saved
*Mosaic Law given because of Israel’s hardness of heart--to remind constantly them of God through the many precepts. (Ch. 11: Christ replaced the Law). Chs. 19-22: laws on circumcision, foods, sabbaths, sacrifices and oblations were instintuted because of the Jews unrighteousness and idolatries, not because there was any necessity for such sacrifices.
*Yet such people will be saved unless they try to influence others (some Christians disagree with this, however), and those who curse Christians in their synagogues (47)
4. Objection to Jesus’ divinity answered: (50)
a. Understand just what is being claimed: Christ is God
as blood of a grape: Christ comes from God, not from man (54)
b. OT texts support numerical plurality in the Godhead:
1. The one appearing under the oad at Mamre to Abraham is not the Father but is later called ‘God’ (56)
2. Ps. 110: ‘Lord said to my Lord....’
3. The Maker of the universe would not leave the celestial matters and be ‘visible on a little portion of the earth in appearing to Moses’ (60)
4. Wisdom is begotten from the Father (before all things) as fire from fire (61)
5. Creation Story: ‘Let us make man’, ‘Man has become as one of us’ (62)
6. This ‘2nd God’, as it were, became man:
a. Isaiah tells us that he had to suffer
b. Ps. 110 tells us that he was born
c. Why would Jesus need the Holy Spirit? Jesus was in
possession of His power even at His birth, but the Holy Spirit descended on Him for men’s sake (88).
d. Why would Jesus die so ashamedly on a cross? (89)
Allegory and Ps. 22 explain this (99).
5. Scriptural authority over against rabbinic teaching:
Christ told us to obey the prophets and himself, not the teachings of men (48)
6. The ambiguity of an OT text can be clarified by subsequent events. Trypho objects to Justin using Is. 39.8 and 40.1-17 to refer to John the Baptist. Tryho admits the texts are ambiguous but that the cessation of prophets among the Jews and the coming of John the Baptist and then Jesus clarify that the texts were speaking of them (51).
c. A developing NT: ‘...since we find it recorded in the memoirs of His apostles that He is the Son of God....’ (100, cf. 105--‘the memoirs’).
2. Apology I
a. The case for Christianity is made over against paganism in two primary ways: similarities and differences with paganism (20-29) and that it is fulfillment of prophecy (30ff).
b. Fulfillment of the prophets:
1. Christological Fulfillment (30-37):
a. Gen. 49.10-11: after Christ, Romans ruled the Jews--scepter was taken from Judah after ‘he comes to whom it belongs’, and ‘he will wash his garments in ... the blood of grapes’.
b. Isaiah 7.14: a virgin will conceive.
c. Micah 5.2: born in Bethlehem.
d. Isaiah 9.6; 65.2; 58.2; Ps. 21.17-19: Christ’s suffering
and death foretold
e. Zech. 9.9: behold your king comes to you humble and
riding on a donkey
f. Ps. 110.1-3: Christ would ascend to heaven and reign until God struck His enemies. This is so that the quota of those whom God foreknew might be saved, thus delaying the consummation (45 or 46?)
g. Is. 35.5f; 57.1f: Christ would heal and raise the dead
h. Is. 53.12; 52.13-15; 53.1-8: Christ would suffer and
come again in glory
i. Christ had an indescribable origin: Is. 53.8-12; Ps.
23.7-8; Dn. 7.13 (51)
j. Prophecies yet to be fulfilled:
All will acknowledge Him: Is. 45.24
The wicked will suffer: Is. 66.24, etc. (52)
2. The Jews:
a. That Jews would reject this was also prophesied: Is.
1.3f; 66.1; 1.11-15; 58.6-7 (38)
b. The devastation of the land of the Jews was foretold:
Is. 64.10-12; 1.7)
c. Gentiles would worship the Messiah and not the
Jews: Is. 65.1-3; 5.20
3. The Gentile mission was foretold: Is. 2.3f; Ps. 19.3-6; 1.1-6;
2.1-13; 96.1-13 (39)
Conclusion to Justin:
1. All OT is holy Scripture, inspired by God’s Logos or Spirit
2. OT seen in terms of prophecy and fulfillment
3. No Scripture can contradict another
4. Typological exegesis saves the OT for Christians. Spiritual
Law remains.
5. Law had a literal, not just typological, purpose, but was given the Jews because of their wickedness (Dial., 18.2).
6. Concept of salvation history: Law obsolete since Christ came
as eternal Law.
E. Barnabas:
Uses typology in the manner of Hebrews. Says that the Jews failed to see, as did Moses, David and the prophets, that the Law was never meant literally but always typologically.
F. Tertullian
1. Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews
a. Tertullian addresses the question of continuity and discontinuity between the Old Testament and Christianity. His solution is to find temporal or carnal and eternal or spiritual aspects of the Law.
1. The 10 Commandments were enclosed as seeds in the Adamic Law, and natural law prevailed until Moses (e.g., Noah was found righteous).
2. The Mosaic Law had its place in time, but God ‘reforms the law’s precepts answerably to the circumstances of the times, with a view to man’s salvation’ (II). This was a temporal mirror of the new law in the new covenant, which is eternal.
a. Jer. 31.31f promised a new law, a new circumcision. With the abolition of the old Law and circumcision also went Sabbath observance (IV). The prophets (Is. 1.13) witnessed that God hated the Jews’ sabbaths.
b. Sacrifice were also carnal and spiritual from the
beginning, as seen in the types of sacrifices of Cain (=Israel) and Abel (=‘us’). (V). The temporal and carnal ceased when the one who instituted a new covenant, eternal and spiritual, came (VI).
b. Within the Scriptures is proof that the Messiah has come in Jesus. This can be seen in a [literal] and spiritual reading of the Scriptures.
1. Isaiah 45.1: Cyrus is Yahweh’s anointed to subdue nations before him. This is taken in a spiritual sense as a
reference to Christ’s universal reign, the text is now being fulfilled since all peoples are believing in Jesus.
2. Dan. 7.24-27: prediction of the time and events of Christ’s
birth, as follows:
*70 habdomads, holy place and city exterminated at his
coming.
*Beginning with Darius through Cyrus to Augustus to Christ’s birth = 62 1/2 habdomads
*7 1/2 habdomads from then till the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.
3. Prophecies of Jesus’ birth and work: (IX)
a. Is. 7.13ff; 8.4: virgin birth, magi, a non-military
Messiah
b. Is. 53 is fulfilled
c. Jesus’ two-fold work: preaching (Is. 58.1f) and power
(Is. 35.4ff)
4. . Dt. 21.23: Jesus is excluded from the curse in hanging on a tree because he had no guile.
5. Christ’s Passion predicted: Ps. 35.12; 69.4, 21; 22.18
6. Figurative predictions in Scriptures are stumbling blocks for the Jews, but they point to the more magnificent fulfillment in Christ:
a. Binding of Isaac
b. Joseph
c. Blessing of Simon and Levi
d. Moses in prayer and the serpent on a stick (= the devil)
e. God reigned from the tree (Ps. 96.10?); power (=cross) on his shoulder (Is. 9.6); wood (=cross) in his bread (=Christ’s body) (Jer. 11.19); whole passion in Ps. 22; death in Is. 53; dark at midday on the cross (Amos 8.9f); Passover lamb (Ex. 12.1ff).
7. Why have the Jews failed to accept Jesus as the Christ? They looked for his majesty, which will be evident at his second advent (Jer. 8.14; Dn. 2.34f; etc.) rather than the humble coming at his first advent (Is. 53).
c. Israel’s ruin was predicted:
Ez. 8.12-9.6 (sealing of remnant with ‘T’ while the rest are
slaughtered)
Exile and agony predicted once again for Israel (Deut. 28.65ff)
Mic. 5.2 predicted that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, but now no Jews are in Bethlehem.
Is. 1.7 predicts destruction
Is. 33.17 predicts exile
Anointing is to be in Israel (Ex. 30.22-33)
City and Holy Place to be exterminated simultaneously (Dn.
9.26)
‘My People have changed their glory’ and terms relating to apocalyptic events at Jesus Passion are found in Jer. 2.10-13; Ps. 8.9
Is. 65.13-16 Jews forsake the Lord, others will serve Him
Allegorization of II Kings 6.1-7 (wood = Christ; iron = prophets and Christians suffering from the Jews)
Etc.
Therefore, suffering of Jews predicted and tied to Christ’s coming. Who is left to suffer then in Israel if Christ is still to come? [A literal reading of the text in light of Tertullian’s day, when Jews had been removed from Israel]
d. Promise of calling of Gentiles: Ps. 2.7f; Is. 42.6f (61.1)
G. Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Books V and VI
1. The Christological predictions:
*Virgin birth: Is. 7.14 (Mt. 1.23; V.XVI)
*Incarnation: Is. 9.6 (cf. Justin Martyr; V.XVI)
*Jesus’ death by the Romans: Ps. 2.1f (‘Why do the nations rage...?’; V.XIX)
*Jesus’ death: Is. 14.19 (spoken of the King of Babylon in mythic language about the demise of a heavenly figure: ‘They cast away the Beloved, as a dead man, who is abominable’; V.XIX).
*Jesus’ resurrection: Ps. 82.8 (‘Arise, O God, judge the earth; for to thee belong all the nations!’, NRSV; V.XIX).
*Jesus’ resurrection: Ps. 12.5 (actually God’s promise to act on behalf of the unjustly treated but taken as a resurrection prophecy: ‘I will now arise," says the LORD; "I will place him in the safety for which he longs"’; V.XIX)
*Jesus’ resurrection: Ps. 41.10 (actually poetic language about a sinful man’s restoration after his demise at the hands of his enemies: ‘But do thou, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may requite them!’; V.XIX)
*Jesus’ divinity, nobody esteeming Him, Jesus’ revelation to Israel, and His being seen ‘afterwards’ and conversing with men are all found in a statement from Bar. 3.35-37: ‘This is our God; no other shall be esteemed with Him. He found out every way of knowledge, and showed it to Jacob His son, and Israel His beloved. Afterwards He was seen upon earth, and conversed with men’ (V.XX).
*Christ’s second coming to judge: Zech. 12.10; Jn. 19.37 (‘"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of compassion and supplication, so that, when they look on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a first-born’; V.XIX)
*Jesus’ divinity: Gen. 19.24 (‘the Lord received fire from the Lord’; V.XX)
*Jesus known by the Patriarchs: Gen. 32.30 (‘I have seen God face to face, and my soul is preserved’) and Gen. 18.25 (as Judge), 27 (as Lord) (V.XX)
*Jesus known by Moses (Ex. 3.2--the burning bush) and predicted as coming (Dt. 18.15: the coming of a prophet like Moses; V.XX)
*Jesus seen as the captain of the Lord’s army by Joshua, who worshipped Him (Josh. 5.14; V.XX)
*Jesus known to Samuel as the ‘Anointed of God’ (1 Sam. 12.3, 5–as in v. 3's ‘testify against me before the LORD and before his anointed’; V.XX).
*Jesus known by David: Ps. 45 (in the prescript, a song concerning the Beloved; words of psalm, vv. 3-7 (His reign and majesty), spoken to the King but taken here as a reference to Christ; V.XX)
* Solomon spoke of Jesus: Prov. 8.22-25 and 9.1 (the words are
spoken by Wisdom; V.XX)
*The prophets prophesied of Jesus (V.XX):
**Isaiah prophesied of Jesus’ reign: Is. 9.1, 10
**Zechariah prophesied of His coming on a donkey to reign: Zech. 9.9
**Daniel spoke of Him as the Son of Man coming to the Father and receiving all judgment and honour (Dn. 7.13) and as the stone which filled the whole earth (2.34)
**Jeremiah spoke of Him with reference to His passion and the subsequent triumph of the Gentiles over the Jews (Lam. 4.20–a reference actually having to do with Israel’s captivity by the Babylonians)
**‘Ezekiel also, and the following prophets, affirm everywhere that he is the Christ, the Lord, the King, the Judge, the Lawgiver, the Angel of the Father, the only-begotten God’ (V.XX).
2. The Jewish rejection of Christ is something calling for six days of fasting by the Christians during Holy Week (V.XV). Ps. 74.4 (as dubitably quoted in V.XV: ‘They placed their signs in the middle of their feasts, and knew them not’) is taken as a witness that they were unable to see that the signs in their feasts pointed to Christ. Is. 63.10 is also taken as proof of Jewish exclusion from the Holy Spirit (; V.XVI). Their blindness is a result of not believing that Jesus was the Christ of God (XVI). This refusal to believe was predicted in Is. 53.1 (‘Who has believed our report...?’; XVI) and Is. 6.9f (‘Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand...’; V.XVI). They Jews themselves predict their own lamentation when they read the Lamentations of Jeremiah during their assembly to commemorate their captivity by Nebuchadnezzar: ‘The Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord was taken in their destructions’ (Lam. 4.20; V.XX).
Book VI also discusses Israel’s wickedness and God’s rejection of her. Jeremiah spoke of the ‘pollutions’ which have gone out to the whole earth (Jer. 23.15) and God has forsaken the wicked synagogue and rejected His house (Jer. 12.7: ‘"I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my heritage’, NRSV; VI.V). Isaiah says, ‘I will neglect my vineyard....’ (5.6; Is. 1.8 and 2.2 are also quoted; VI.V). Joel’s prophesy of God’s Spirit being poured out on all flesh is interpreted negatively as His taking away power and efficacy from the Jews (VI.V).
The calling of the Gentiles also points to the rejection of the Jews, yet the primary point made is that the Gentiles were called by God. Echoes of Hos. 2. (Not a people) are followed by a quotation of Is. 65.1 and 2 (‘I was found of them that sought me not.... All the day long have I stretched out mine hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people’) (V.XV). Finally, Ps. 18.43f is proof of the Gentile inclusion: ‘A people whom I knew not have served me....’
H. The Treatises of Cyprian, XII (mid-3rd century)
1. In 24 arguments, Cyprian argues that the Jews have fallen under God’s wrath and have been replaced by the mostly Gentile Church. This is the first book of this 12th treatise.
2. In the second book of this 12th treatise, Cyprian advances 30 arguments regarding Christ from the Hebrew Scriptures.
Christian Mission in the Early Church: Christian - Jewish Dialogue
The following is an outline of points from some of the early Christian literature in the first several centuries (scholarship from a very long time ago!). It offers a look at how Scripture was used in Christian dialogue with the Jews. The intention here is only descriptive, although one can see the desperate need for a more narrative theological reading of the Bible, and for a more contextual approach to exegesis.
A. Spurious Letter of Ignatius to the Antiochians (uncertain date)
This work argues first from Moses and then from the prophets as a twofold witness to Jesus’ identity.
1. Proof from Moses about Jesus (section 2):
*’The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord’ (Gen. 19.24)
*’Let Us make man after our image’ (Gen. 1.26)
*Jesus’ incarnation: ‘A prophet shall the Lord raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me’ (Dt. 18.15)
2. From the Prophets (section 3):
*Jesus’ divinity: ‘A Son...on whose shoulder the government is from above; and His name is called the Angel of great counsel...the strong and mighty God’ (Is. 9.6)
*Jesus’ incarnation: ‘Behold a virgin shall be with Child...’ (Is. 7.14;
Mt. 1.23)
*Jesus’ Passion: ‘He was led as a sheep to the slaughter....’ (Is. 53.7)
*Jesus’ Passion: ‘I also was an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed (Jer.
11.19–not prophetic)
3. The proofs continue from the Gospels in section 4.
B. The Epistle to Diognetus
1. Jewish sacrifice compared to pagan sacrifice: ‘But those who imagine that,
by means of blood, and the smoke of sacrifices and burnt-offerings they offer sacrifices [acceptable] to Him, and that by such honours they show Him respect–these, by supposing that they can give anything to Him who stands in need of nothing, appear to me in no respect to differ from those who studiously confer the same honour on things destitute of sense....’ (3).
2. The author simply takes Jewish food laws, Sabbaths, boasting, circumcision, fastings, new moons to be ridiculous (4). No Scriptural argument, such as we find in the Epistle to Barnabas is proffered. The ease with which these are dismissed suggests that the Jews are not the author’s concern so much as making the argument that Christians ‘are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech....’ (5).
C. The Epistle of Barnabas
1. Jewish sacrifices are abolished by the prophets: Is. 1.11-14; Jer. 7.22; Zech.
8.17; Ps. 51.19 (2).
2. Jewish fasts are not true fasts: Is. 58.4-10 (3).
3. Jewish covenant is not both theirs and ours, but the Jews lost it, as was (foreshadowed) when Moses’ first covenant written by the finger of God was destroyed due to Israel’s idolatry and was rewritten by Moses Himself (Ex. 31.18; 34.28) (4). Towards the end of ch. 4, the author states that Israel was abandoned, with a quotation from Mt. 20.16 or 22.14 (‘many are called, but few are chosen’).
4. Jesus’ death (ch. 5):
a. ‘For it is written concerning Him, partly with reference to Israel, and partly to us; and [the Scripture] saith thus; ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities: with His stripes we are healed. He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb which is dumb before its shearer’ (Is. 53.5, 7; later v. 8 is loosely quoted).
b. ‘When I shall smite the Shepherd, then the sheep of the flock shall
be scattered’ (Zech. 8.7)
c. Pss. 22.21, 17, and 119.120 are inaccurately quoted: ‘Spare my soul from the sword, fasten my flesh with nails; for the assemblies of the wicked have risen up against me’
d. Is. 50.6f: ‘Behold, I have given my back to scourges, and my cheeks to strokes, and I have set my countenance as a firm rock’ (ch. 6 continues the quotation from vv. 8 and 9).
e. Is. 8.14; 28.16: ‘Since as a mighty stone He is laid for crushing, behold I cast down for the foundations of Zion a stone, precious, elect, a corner-stone, honourable (ch. 6)
f. Jesus’ flesh is the stone the builders rejected (Ps. 118.22).
g. Ps. 22.17; 118.12: ‘The assembly of the wicked surrounded me; they encompassed me as bees do a honeycomb’ and ‘upon my garment they cast lots’ (Ps. 22.19)
5. Word against Israel (ch. 6)
Is. 8.9: ‘Woe to their soul, because they have counselled an evil counsel against themselves, saying, Let us bind the just one, because he is displeasing to us’ (2nd half of the quote is from Wisd. 2.12).
6. Typological interpretation of Ex. 33.1; Lev. 20.24 (enter the good land...flowing with milk and honey): the new creation in these last days leads to a non-literal interpretation: ‘As the infant is kept alive first by honey, and then by milk, so also we, being quickened and kept alive by the faith of the promise and by the word, shall live ruling over the earth’–which is still future for Christians (ch. 6).
7. Gen. 22: Binding of Isaac a type of Christ’s sacrifice (ch. 7). This sacrifice would be for sins (the author thinks he is quoting a prophet for this point).
8. The goat sent away into the desert with the sins of the people on it is a type of Christ (Lev. 16; ch. 7).
9. The red heifer offered for sin is a type of Christ (there are no quotations, but the author seems certain of the practice) It bears some similarity with the sacrifice on the day of atonement (Lev. 16; ch. 8)
10. Circumcision is of the heart: Jer. 4.4. An evil angel deceived the Jews that it was of the flesh. Deut. 10.16: ‘Circumcise the stubbornness of your heart, and harden not your neck’; Jer. 9.25f: ‘...all the nations are
uncircumcised in the flesh, but this people are uncircumcised in heart’. Abraham’s circumcision of 318 men (confusing Gen. 17.26f and 14.14): ten and eight are ‘I’ and ‘H’ Greek letters–the first two letters of ‘Jesus’–and 300 is the letter ‘T’, representing the cross. Abraham’s circumcision pointed to Jesus. (Ch. 9).
11. Food laws of Moses should be taken ‘in spirit’ (ch. 10). The various foods are interpreted as characters with whom one should not associate. ‘But how was it possible for them to understand or comprehend these things? We, then, rightly understanding his commandments, explain them as the Lord intended. For this purpose He circumcised our ears and our hearts, that we might understand these things’ (ch. 10).
12. Baptism and the Cross foreshadowed in the Scriptures. Yet the quotations are obscure. Ps. 1.3-6 is seen to refer to both baptism and the cross: ‘The man who doeth these things shall be like a tree planted by the courses of waters, which shall yield its fruit in due season....’
13. The cross in the Scriptures:
*’And when shall these things be accomplished? And the Lord saith, When a tree shall be bent down, and again arise, and when blood shall flow out of wood’ (unknown reference).
*Moses’ putting one weapon on another on the hill, arms outstretched, to win the battle (cf. Ex. 17.9ff–but has he confused Moses rod and the ‘banner’ as two sticks in the form of a cross?). The author adds Is. 65.2: ‘All day long I have stretched forth My hands to an unbelieving people and one that gainsays My righteous way’
*Num. 21.9–Moses makes a life-giving serpent to deliver people from the bites of poisonous snakes. This is a type of Christ.
14. Jesus is not the son of David but of God: Ps. 110.1 (Mt. 22.43-45 is necessary for this reading): David called Christ ‘Lord’ (and so not his son but God’s son)
15. Is. 45.1: ‘The Lord said to Christ, my Lord, whose right hand I have holden, that the nations should yield obedience before Him; and I will break in pieces the strength of kings’–David called Christ ‘Lord’.
16. The Christians, not the Jews, are the heirs of the covenant:
*The two nations in Rebecca’s womb are Christians and Jews–the elder serves the younger (Gen. 25) (13).
*Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, when blessed by Isaac: the younger receives the blessing that the elder should have received (Gen. 48) (13).
*Abraham believed God and had righteousness imputed to him and became the father of nations which believe in the Lord while uncircumcised (13).
*The Jews had the role of preparing the way for the Gentiles (Is. 42.6f;
49.6; 61.1f) (ch. 14).
17. False and true sabbaths: Ex. 20.8//Deut. 5.12 calls for sanctifying the Sabbath with clean hands and a pure heart. This was not possible until wickedness was removed. Also, Is. 1.13 says that God cannot abide Israel’s new moons and Sabbaths (ch. 15).
18. The literal Temple and the spiritual Temple: Is. 40.12; 66.1 (and perhaps Is. 49.17 LXX) set God above any earthly habitation (ch. 16). Another
misquote suggests the Temple would be destroyed. Dan. 9.24-27; Hag. 2.10 are applied to the Temple existing in a pure heart–God dwells in us.
D. Justin Martyr
1. Dialogue With Trypho the Jew
Trypho the Jew asks Justin, ‘Explain to us just what is your opinion of [providence and judgment], and what is your idea of God, and what is your philosophy’ (1). Justin’s arguments include:
a. Justin turned away from Platonic philosophy with its emphasis on reason, as though God could be perceived by the mind alone, and became a Christian: No one can understand the truths of the prophets, who themselves offered no proof but were inspired by the Holy Spirit (note: their prophecies have come true and they worked miracles) without enlightenment by God and His Christ (4-7).
b. The authority of Scripture is agreed upon by Trypho and Justin.
*Justin speaks of: ‘Holy Spirit of prophecy’ (ch. 32), ‘a psalm, dictated to David by the Holy Spirit’ (ch. 34)
*No scripture contradicts another (65)
*Thus through Scripture Justin shows Trypho two things (39): 1. The Jews were disobedient; 2. Jesus is Christ. Yet Scripture belongs to the Christians, not the Jews, ‘for we believe them’ (ch. 29).
1. Types:
Passover lamb a type of Christ (40)
Two goats a type of Christs two advents (40)
Offering of flour a type of Eucharistic bread (41)
12 bells of high priest’s robe a type of 12 apostles, who relied on Christ’s power, Eternal Priest (42)
‘for Christ is King, and Priest, and God, and Lord, and angel, and man, and captain, and stone, and a Son born, and first made subject to suffering, then returning to heaven, and again coming with glory, and He is preached as having the everlasting Kingdom: so I prove from all the Scriptures’ (34).
2. Christ’s birth was foretold:
a. Is. 53.8: a mystery
b. Is. 7.10-16: a virgin birth (43)
1. Trypho objects (66): (i) the passage has to do with Hezekiah; (ii) ‘young woman’ does not mean ‘virgin’; (iii) the Greeks say Perseus was born of Danae, a virgin (67)
2. Justin: (i) pagan religious similarities are the devil’s emulations: Baccus, born of Jupiter and Semele, died, rose again, ascended to heaven; Hercules, born of Jove, ascended to heaven at death; Aesculapius, raiser of dead, healer of all diseases; mysteries of Mithras (69, 70);
(ii) Jews removed some Scriptures which may be Christological (72); Jesus was born of a virgin (78).
3. Can one who believes Jesus is Christ and who yet lives by Mosaic Law be saved? [Or, what was the place of the Mosaic Law in salvation?]
*Those who were righteous before Christ came and were under the Law shall be saved (45)
*Nobody now obeys all the Mosaic Law since one cannot offer the paschal lamb
*Patriarchs only observed circumcision and will be
saved
*Mosaic Law given because of Israel’s hardness of heart--to remind constantly them of God through the many precepts. (Ch. 11: Christ replaced the Law). Chs. 19-22: laws on circumcision, foods, sabbaths, sacrifices and oblations were instintuted because of the Jews unrighteousness and idolatries, not because there was any necessity for such sacrifices.
*Yet such people will be saved unless they try to influence others (some Christians disagree with this, however), and those who curse Christians in their synagogues (47)
4. Objection to Jesus’ divinity answered: (50)
a. Understand just what is being claimed: Christ is God
as blood of a grape: Christ comes from God, not from man (54)
b. OT texts support numerical plurality in the Godhead:
1. The one appearing under the oad at Mamre to Abraham is not the Father but is later called ‘God’ (56)
2. Ps. 110: ‘Lord said to my Lord....’
3. The Maker of the universe would not leave the celestial matters and be ‘visible on a little portion of the earth in appearing to Moses’ (60)
4. Wisdom is begotten from the Father (before all things) as fire from fire (61)
5. Creation Story: ‘Let us make man’, ‘Man has become as one of us’ (62)
6. This ‘2nd God’, as it were, became man:
a. Isaiah tells us that he had to suffer
b. Ps. 110 tells us that he was born
c. Why would Jesus need the Holy Spirit? Jesus was in
possession of His power even at His birth, but the Holy Spirit descended on Him for men’s sake (88).
d. Why would Jesus die so ashamedly on a cross? (89)
Allegory and Ps. 22 explain this (99).
5. Scriptural authority over against rabbinic teaching:
Christ told us to obey the prophets and himself, not the teachings of men (48)
6. The ambiguity of an OT text can be clarified by subsequent events. Trypho objects to Justin using Is. 39.8 and 40.1-17 to refer to John the Baptist. Tryho admits the texts are ambiguous but that the cessation of prophets among the Jews and the coming of John the Baptist and then Jesus clarify that the texts were speaking of them (51).
c. A developing NT: ‘...since we find it recorded in the memoirs of His apostles that He is the Son of God....’ (100, cf. 105--‘the memoirs’).
2. Apology I
a. The case for Christianity is made over against paganism in two primary ways: similarities and differences with paganism (20-29) and that it is fulfillment of prophecy (30ff).
b. Fulfillment of the prophets:
1. Christological Fulfillment (30-37):
a. Gen. 49.10-11: after Christ, Romans ruled the Jews--scepter was taken from Judah after ‘he comes to whom it belongs’, and ‘he will wash his garments in ... the blood of grapes’.
b. Isaiah 7.14: a virgin will conceive.
c. Micah 5.2: born in Bethlehem.
d. Isaiah 9.6; 65.2; 58.2; Ps. 21.17-19: Christ’s suffering
and death foretold
e. Zech. 9.9: behold your king comes to you humble and
riding on a donkey
f. Ps. 110.1-3: Christ would ascend to heaven and reign until God struck His enemies. This is so that the quota of those whom God foreknew might be saved, thus delaying the consummation (45 or 46?)
g. Is. 35.5f; 57.1f: Christ would heal and raise the dead
h. Is. 53.12; 52.13-15; 53.1-8: Christ would suffer and
come again in glory
i. Christ had an indescribable origin: Is. 53.8-12; Ps.
23.7-8; Dn. 7.13 (51)
j. Prophecies yet to be fulfilled:
All will acknowledge Him: Is. 45.24
The wicked will suffer: Is. 66.24, etc. (52)
2. The Jews:
a. That Jews would reject this was also prophesied: Is.
1.3f; 66.1; 1.11-15; 58.6-7 (38)
b. The devastation of the land of the Jews was foretold:
Is. 64.10-12; 1.7)
c. Gentiles would worship the Messiah and not the
Jews: Is. 65.1-3; 5.20
3. The Gentile mission was foretold: Is. 2.3f; Ps. 19.3-6; 1.1-6;
2.1-13; 96.1-13 (39)
Conclusion to Justin:
1. All OT is holy Scripture, inspired by God’s Logos or Spirit
2. OT seen in terms of prophecy and fulfillment
3. No Scripture can contradict another
4. Typological exegesis saves the OT for Christians. Spiritual
Law remains.
5. Law had a literal, not just typological, purpose, but was given the Jews because of their wickedness (Dial., 18.2).
6. Concept of salvation history: Law obsolete since Christ came
as eternal Law.
E. Barnabas:
Uses typology in the manner of Hebrews. Says that the Jews failed to see, as did Moses, David and the prophets, that the Law was never meant literally but always typologically.
F. Tertullian
1. Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews
a. Tertullian addresses the question of continuity and discontinuity between the Old Testament and Christianity. His solution is to find temporal or carnal and eternal or spiritual aspects of the Law.
1. The 10 Commandments were enclosed as seeds in the Adamic Law, and natural law prevailed until Moses (e.g., Noah was found righteous).
2. The Mosaic Law had its place in time, but God ‘reforms the law’s precepts answerably to the circumstances of the times, with a view to man’s salvation’ (II). This was a temporal mirror of the new law in the new covenant, which is eternal.
a. Jer. 31.31f promised a new law, a new circumcision. With the abolition of the old Law and circumcision also went Sabbath observance (IV). The prophets (Is. 1.13) witnessed that God hated the Jews’ sabbaths.
b. Sacrifice were also carnal and spiritual from the
beginning, as seen in the types of sacrifices of Cain (=Israel) and Abel (=‘us’). (V). The temporal and carnal ceased when the one who instituted a new covenant, eternal and spiritual, came (VI).
b. Within the Scriptures is proof that the Messiah has come in Jesus. This can be seen in a [literal] and spiritual reading of the Scriptures.
1. Isaiah 45.1: Cyrus is Yahweh’s anointed to subdue nations before him. This is taken in a spiritual sense as a
reference to Christ’s universal reign, the text is now being fulfilled since all peoples are believing in Jesus.
2. Dan. 7.24-27: prediction of the time and events of Christ’s
birth, as follows:
*70 habdomads, holy place and city exterminated at his
coming.
*Beginning with Darius through Cyrus to Augustus to Christ’s birth = 62 1/2 habdomads
*7 1/2 habdomads from then till the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.
3. Prophecies of Jesus’ birth and work: (IX)
a. Is. 7.13ff; 8.4: virgin birth, magi, a non-military
Messiah
b. Is. 53 is fulfilled
c. Jesus’ two-fold work: preaching (Is. 58.1f) and power
(Is. 35.4ff)
4. . Dt. 21.23: Jesus is excluded from the curse in hanging on a tree because he had no guile.
5. Christ’s Passion predicted: Ps. 35.12; 69.4, 21; 22.18
6. Figurative predictions in Scriptures are stumbling blocks for the Jews, but they point to the more magnificent fulfillment in Christ:
a. Binding of Isaac
b. Joseph
c. Blessing of Simon and Levi
d. Moses in prayer and the serpent on a stick (= the devil)
e. God reigned from the tree (Ps. 96.10?); power (=cross) on his shoulder (Is. 9.6); wood (=cross) in his bread (=Christ’s body) (Jer. 11.19); whole passion in Ps. 22; death in Is. 53; dark at midday on the cross (Amos 8.9f); Passover lamb (Ex. 12.1ff).
7. Why have the Jews failed to accept Jesus as the Christ? They looked for his majesty, which will be evident at his second advent (Jer. 8.14; Dn. 2.34f; etc.) rather than the humble coming at his first advent (Is. 53).
c. Israel’s ruin was predicted:
Ez. 8.12-9.6 (sealing of remnant with ‘T’ while the rest are
slaughtered)
Exile and agony predicted once again for Israel (Deut. 28.65ff)
Mic. 5.2 predicted that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, but now no Jews are in Bethlehem.
Is. 1.7 predicts destruction
Is. 33.17 predicts exile
Anointing is to be in Israel (Ex. 30.22-33)
City and Holy Place to be exterminated simultaneously (Dn.
9.26)
‘My People have changed their glory’ and terms relating to apocalyptic events at Jesus Passion are found in Jer. 2.10-13; Ps. 8.9
Is. 65.13-16 Jews forsake the Lord, others will serve Him
Allegorization of II Kings 6.1-7 (wood = Christ; iron = prophets and Christians suffering from the Jews)
Etc.
Therefore, suffering of Jews predicted and tied to Christ’s coming. Who is left to suffer then in Israel if Christ is still to come? [A literal reading of the text in light of Tertullian’s day, when Jews had been removed from Israel]
d. Promise of calling of Gentiles: Ps. 2.7f; Is. 42.6f (61.1)
G. Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Books V and VI
1. The Christological predictions:
*Virgin birth: Is. 7.14 (Mt. 1.23; V.XVI)
*Incarnation: Is. 9.6 (cf. Justin Martyr; V.XVI)
*Jesus’ death by the Romans: Ps. 2.1f (‘Why do the nations rage...?’; V.XIX)
*Jesus’ death: Is. 14.19 (spoken of the King of Babylon in mythic language about the demise of a heavenly figure: ‘They cast away the Beloved, as a dead man, who is abominable’; V.XIX).
*Jesus’ resurrection: Ps. 82.8 (‘Arise, O God, judge the earth; for to thee belong all the nations!’, NRSV; V.XIX).
*Jesus’ resurrection: Ps. 12.5 (actually God’s promise to act on behalf of the unjustly treated but taken as a resurrection prophecy: ‘I will now arise," says the LORD; "I will place him in the safety for which he longs"’; V.XIX)
*Jesus’ resurrection: Ps. 41.10 (actually poetic language about a sinful man’s restoration after his demise at the hands of his enemies: ‘But do thou, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may requite them!’; V.XIX)
*Jesus’ divinity, nobody esteeming Him, Jesus’ revelation to Israel, and His being seen ‘afterwards’ and conversing with men are all found in a statement from Bar. 3.35-37: ‘This is our God; no other shall be esteemed with Him. He found out every way of knowledge, and showed it to Jacob His son, and Israel His beloved. Afterwards He was seen upon earth, and conversed with men’ (V.XX).
*Christ’s second coming to judge: Zech. 12.10; Jn. 19.37 (‘"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of compassion and supplication, so that, when they look on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a first-born’; V.XIX)
*Jesus’ divinity: Gen. 19.24 (‘the Lord received fire from the Lord’; V.XX)
*Jesus known by the Patriarchs: Gen. 32.30 (‘I have seen God face to face, and my soul is preserved’) and Gen. 18.25 (as Judge), 27 (as Lord) (V.XX)
*Jesus known by Moses (Ex. 3.2--the burning bush) and predicted as coming (Dt. 18.15: the coming of a prophet like Moses; V.XX)
*Jesus seen as the captain of the Lord’s army by Joshua, who worshipped Him (Josh. 5.14; V.XX)
*Jesus known to Samuel as the ‘Anointed of God’ (1 Sam. 12.3, 5–as in v. 3's ‘testify against me before the LORD and before his anointed’; V.XX).
*Jesus known by David: Ps. 45 (in the prescript, a song concerning the Beloved; words of psalm, vv. 3-7 (His reign and majesty), spoken to the King but taken here as a reference to Christ; V.XX)
* Solomon spoke of Jesus: Prov. 8.22-25 and 9.1 (the words are
spoken by Wisdom; V.XX)
*The prophets prophesied of Jesus (V.XX):
**Isaiah prophesied of Jesus’ reign: Is. 9.1, 10
**Zechariah prophesied of His coming on a donkey to reign: Zech. 9.9
**Daniel spoke of Him as the Son of Man coming to the Father and receiving all judgment and honour (Dn. 7.13) and as the stone which filled the whole earth (2.34)
**Jeremiah spoke of Him with reference to His passion and the subsequent triumph of the Gentiles over the Jews (Lam. 4.20–a reference actually having to do with Israel’s captivity by the Babylonians)
**‘Ezekiel also, and the following prophets, affirm everywhere that he is the Christ, the Lord, the King, the Judge, the Lawgiver, the Angel of the Father, the only-begotten God’ (V.XX).
2. The Jewish rejection of Christ is something calling for six days of fasting by the Christians during Holy Week (V.XV). Ps. 74.4 (as dubitably quoted in V.XV: ‘They placed their signs in the middle of their feasts, and knew them not’) is taken as a witness that they were unable to see that the signs in their feasts pointed to Christ. Is. 63.10 is also taken as proof of Jewish exclusion from the Holy Spirit (; V.XVI). Their blindness is a result of not believing that Jesus was the Christ of God (XVI). This refusal to believe was predicted in Is. 53.1 (‘Who has believed our report...?’; XVI) and Is. 6.9f (‘Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand...’; V.XVI). They Jews themselves predict their own lamentation when they read the Lamentations of Jeremiah during their assembly to commemorate their captivity by Nebuchadnezzar: ‘The Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord was taken in their destructions’ (Lam. 4.20; V.XX).
Book VI also discusses Israel’s wickedness and God’s rejection of her. Jeremiah spoke of the ‘pollutions’ which have gone out to the whole earth (Jer. 23.15) and God has forsaken the wicked synagogue and rejected His house (Jer. 12.7: ‘"I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my heritage’, NRSV; VI.V). Isaiah says, ‘I will neglect my vineyard....’ (5.6; Is. 1.8 and 2.2 are also quoted; VI.V). Joel’s prophesy of God’s Spirit being poured out on all flesh is interpreted negatively as His taking away power and efficacy from the Jews (VI.V).
The calling of the Gentiles also points to the rejection of the Jews, yet the primary point made is that the Gentiles were called by God. Echoes of Hos. 2. (Not a people) are followed by a quotation of Is. 65.1 and 2 (‘I was found of them that sought me not.... All the day long have I stretched out mine hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people’) (V.XV). Finally, Ps. 18.43f is proof of the Gentile inclusion: ‘A people whom I knew not have served me....’
H. The Treatises of Cyprian, XII (mid-3rd century)
1. In 24 arguments, Cyprian argues that the Jews have fallen under God’s wrath and have been replaced by the mostly Gentile Church. This is the first book of this 12th treatise.
2. In the second book of this 12th treatise, Cyprian advances 30 arguments regarding Christ from the Hebrew Scriptures.
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