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Saint Athanasius' "On the Incarnation" CHAPTER VI
Refutation of the Jews(33) 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 investigate 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 unfittingness or incongruity (as it seems to them)
alike of the cross and of the Word's becoming man at all. But
we have no hesitation in taking up the argument against these
objectors, for the proofs on our side are extremely clear.
First, then, we will consider the Jews. Their unbelief has its
refutation in the Scriptures which even themselves read; for
from cover to cover 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, a virgin shall conceive and
bear a son, and they shall call his name 'Emmanuel,' which means
'God is with us.'"[1]
And Moses, that truly great one in whose word the Jews trust
so implicitly, he also recognized the importance and truth of
the matter. He puts it thus: "There shall arise a star from Jacob
and a man from Israel, and he shall break in pieces the rulers
of Moab.[2]
And, again, "How lovely are thy dwellings, O Jacob,
thy tents, O Israel! Like woodland valleys they give shade, and
like parks by rivers, like tents which the Lord has pitched,
like cedar-trees by streams. There shall come forth a Man from
among his seed, and he shall rule over many peoples."[3]
And, again, Isaiah says, "Before the Babe shall be old enough
to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus
and the spoils of Samaria from under the eyes of the king of
Assyria."[4]
These words, then, foretell that a Man shall appear. And Scripture
proclaims further that He that is to come is Lord of all. These
are the words, "Behold, the Lord sitteth on an airy
cloud and shall come into Egypt, and the man-made images of Egypt
shall be shaken."[5]
And it is from Egypt also that the Father calls him back,
saying, "Out of Egypt have I called My Son."[6]
(34) Moreover, the Scriptures are
not silent even about His death. On the contrary, they refer
to it with the utmost clearness. They have not feared to speak
also of the cause of it. He endures it, they say, not for His
own sake, but for the sake of bringing immortality and salvation
to all, and they record also the plotting of the Jews against
Him and all the indignities which He suffered at their hands.
Certainly nobody 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 considered, He bears our sins and suffers for our sakes.
And we for our part thought Him distressed and afflicted and
ill-used; but it was for our sins that He was wounded and for
our lawlessness that He was made weak. Chastisement for our peace
was upon Him, and by His bruising we are healed."[7] O marvel at the love of the Word for men, for
it is on our account that He is dishonored, so that we may be
brought to honor. "For all we," it
goes on, "have strayed like sheep, man has strayed from
his path, and the Lord has given 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 dumb before its shearer,
so He opened not His mouth; in His humiliation His judgment was
taken away."[8]
And then Scripture anticipates the surmises of any who might
think from His suffering thus that He was just an ordinary man,
and shows what power worked in His behalf. "Who shall declare of what lineage He
comes?" it says, "for His life is exalted from the
earth. By the lawlessnesses of the people was He brought to death,
and I will give the wicked in return for His burial and the rich
in return for His death. For He did no lawlessness, neither was
deceit found in His mouth. And the Lord wills to heal Him of
His affliction."[9]
(35) You have heard the prophecy of
His death, and now, perhaps, you want to know what indications
there are about the cross. Even this is not passed over in silence:
on the contrary, the sacred writers proclaim it with the utmost
plainness. Moses foretells it first, and that right loudly, when
he says, "You shall see your Life hanging before
your eyes, and shall not believe."[10]
After him the prophets also give their witness, saying, "But I as an innocent lamb brought
to be offered was yet 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."[11]
And, again, "They pierced My hands and My feet,
they counted all My bones, they divided My garments for themselves
and cast lots for My clothing."[12]
Now a death lifted up and that takes place on wood can be
none other than the death of the cross; moreover, it is only
in that death that the hands and feet are pierced. Besides this,
since the Savior dwelt among men, all nations everywhere have
begun to know God; and this too Holy Writ expressly mentions.
"There shall be the Root of Jesse,"
it says, "and he who rises up
to rule the nations, on Him nations shall set their hope."[13]
These are just a few things in proof of what has taken place;
but indeed all Scripture teems with disproof of Jewish unbelief.
For example, which of the righteous men and holy prophets and
patriarchs of whom the Divine Scriptures tell ever had his bodily
birth from a virgin only? Was not Abel born of Adam, Enoch of
Jared, Noah of Lamech, Abraham of Terah, Isaac of Abraham, and
Jacob of Isaac? Was not Judah begotten by Jacob and Moses and
Aaron by Ameram? Was not Samuel the son of Elkanah, David of
Jesse, Solomon of David, Hezekiah of Ahaz, Josiah of Amon, Isaiah
of Amos, Jeremiah of Hilkiah and Ezekiel of Buzi? Had not each
of these a father as author of his being? So who is He that is
born of a virgin only, that sign of which the prophet makes so
much? Again, which of all those people 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 again became
known to his neighbors as a great man only after his birth. But
with Christ it was otherwise. The witness to His birth was not
man, but a star shining in the heavens whence He was coming down.
(36) Then, again, what king that ever
was reigned and took trophies from his enemies before he had
strength to call father or mother? Was not David thirty years
old when he came to the throne and Solomon a grown young man?
Did not Joash enter on his reign at the age of seven, and Josiah,
some time 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 fight with Moab and smite the Syrians,
and Hezekiah quail at the boasting of Sennacherib? Did not Amalek
make war on Moses and the Amorites oppose him, and did not the
inhabitantsof 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 of the early patriarchs die on the cross for
the salvation of all? Was any of them wounded and killed for
the healing of all? Did the idols of Egypt fall down before any
righteous man or king that came there? Abraham came there certainly,
but idolatry prevailed just the same; and Moses was born there,
but the mistaken worship was unchanged.
(37) 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 in the mountain, and David
ended his days in his house, without anybody having plotted against
him. Certainly he had been sought by Saul, but he was preserved
unharmed. Again Isaiah was sawn asunder, but he was not hung
on a tree. Jeremiah was shamefully used, but he did not die under
condemnation. Ezekiel suffered, but he did so, not on behalf
of the people, but only to signify to themwhat was going to happen.
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 Life of all, although in
point of fact He did share our human nature. "You
shall see your Life hanging before your eyes,"
they say, and "Who shall declare of what lineage
He comes?" With all the saints we can trace their
descent from the beginning, and see exactly how each came to
be; but the Divine Word maintains that we cannot declare the
lineage of Him Who is the Life. Who is it, then, of Whom Holy
Writ thus speaks? Who is there so great that even the prophets
foretell of Him such mighty things? There is indeed no one in
the Scriptures at all, save the common Savior of all, the Word
of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. He it is that proceeded from a
virgin, and appeared as man on earth, He it is 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 visibly recognized by all the world.
He was actually born in Judea, yet men from Persia came to worship
Him. He it is Who won victory from His demon foes and trophies
from the idolaters even before His bodily appearing--namely,
all the heathen who from every region have abjured the tradition
of their fathers and the false worship of idols and are now placing
their hope in Christ and transferring their allegiance 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 everybody
to Himself and through Himself to the Father. He it is 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 He it is Who like a sheep gave up
His own body to death, His life for ours and our salvation.
(38)Yet the Jews disbelieve this. This
argument does not satisfy them. Well, then, let them be persuaded
by other things in their own oracles. Ofwhom, 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 am I,' to the nation that had not called upon
My Name. I stretched out My hands to a disobedient and gainsaying
people."[14]
Who is this person 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 man is this prophet, 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 by nature
without body, on our account appeared in a body 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, "Be strong, hands that hang down and
feeble knees, take courage, you of little faith, be strong and
do not fear. See, our God will recompense judgment, He Himself
will come and save us. Then the eyes of blind men shall be opened
and the ears of deaf men shall hear, and stammerers shall speak
distinctly."[15]
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 Jewry?
The leper Naaman was cleansed, it is true, but no deaf man heard
nor did any lame man walk. Elijah raised a dead person and so
did Elisha; but no one blind from birth received his sight. To
raise a dead person is a great thing indeed, but it is not such
as the Savior did. 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 never took place. When therefore
did these things happen, unless 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 the Jews who saw it themselves testified to the fact
that such things had never before occurred. "Since
the world began," they said, "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."[16]
(39) 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 theme on which they are always harping most brazenly,
in spite of all the evidence against them. But they shall be
refuted on this supreme point more clearly than on any, and that
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. "Seventy weeks,"
he says, "are cut short upon thy people and
upon the holy city, to make a complete end of sin and for sins
to be sealed up and iniquities blotted out, and to make reconciliation
for iniquity and to seal vision and prophet, and to anoint a
Holy One of holies. And thou shalt know and understand from the
going forth of the Word to answer,[17] and to build Jerusalem, until Christ the Prince."[18]
In regard to the other prophecies, they may possibly be able
to find excuses for deferring their reference to a future time,
but what can they say to this one? How can they face it at all?
Not only does it expressly mention the Anointed One, that is
the Christ, it even declares that He Who is to be anointed is
not man only, but the Holy One of holies! And it says that Jerusalem
is to stand till His coming, and that after it prophet and vision
shall cease in Israel! David was anointed of old, and Solomon,
and Hezekiah; but then Jerusalem and the place stood, and prophets
were prophesying, Gad and Asaph and Nathan, and later Isaiah
and Hosea and Amos and others. Moreover, those men who were anointed
were called holy certainly, but none of them was called the Holy
of holies. Nor is it any use for the Jews to take refuge in the
Captivity, and say that Jerusalem did not exist then, for what
about the prophets? It is a fact that at the outset of the Exile
Daniel and Jeremiah were there, and Ezekiel and Haggai and Zechariah
also prophesied.
(40) So the Jews are indulging in fiction,
and transferring present time to future. When did prophet and
vision cease from Israel? Was it not when Christ came, the Holy
One of holies? It is, in fact, a sign and notable proof of the
coming of the Word that Jerusalem no longer stands, neither is
prophet raised up nor vision revealed among them. And it is natural
that it should be so, for when He that was signified had come,
what need was there any longer of any to signify Him? And when
the Truth had come, what further need was there of the shadow?
On His account only they prophesied continually, until such time
as Essential Righteousness has come, Who was made the Ransom
for the sins of all. For the same reason Jerusalem stood until
the same time, in order that there men might premeditate the
types before the Truth was known. So, of course, once the Holy
One of holies had come, both vision and prophecy were sealed.
And the kingdom of Jerusalem ceased at the same time, because
kings were to be anointed among them only until the Holy of holies
had been anointed. Moses also prophesies that the kingdom of
the Jews shall stand until His time, 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."[19]
And that is why the Savior Himself was always proclaiming "The law and the prophets prophesied
until John."[20]
So if there is still king or prophet or vision among the Jews,
they 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
and city and temple taken, how can they be so irreligious, how
can they so flaunt the facts, as to deny Christ Who has brought
it all about? Again, they see the heathen forsaking idols and
setting their hopes through Christ on the God of Israel; why
do they yet deny Christ Who after the flesh was born of the root
of Jesse and reigns henceforward? Of course, if the heathen were
worshipping 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 too the Jews dishonored, why do they not recognize
or rather why do they deliberately refuse to see that the Lord
of Whom the Scriptures prophesied has shone forth to the world
and appeared to it in a bodily form? Scripture declares it repeatedly.
"The Lord God has appeared to
us,"[21] and
again, "He sent forth His Word
and healed them."[22]
And again, "It was no ambassador,
no angel who saved us, but the Lord Himself."[23] The Jews are afflicted like
some demented person who sees the earth lit up by the sun, but
denies the sun that lights it up! What more is there for their
Expected One to do when he comes? To call the heathen? But they
are called already. To put an end to prophet and king and vision?
But this too has already happened. To expose the Goddenyingness
of idols? 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? The plain
fact is, as I say, that 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 Gentiles,
forsaking atheism, 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.
Thus the Jews may be refuted by these and other arguments from
the Divine teaching. |