Expository Treatise
Against the Jews.
1. Now, then, incline thine ear to me, and hear my
words, and give heed, thou Jew. Many a time dost thou boast
thyself, in that thou didst condemn Jesus of Nazareth to death, and
didst give Him vinegar and gall to drink; and thou dost vaunt thyself
because of this. Come therefore, and let us consider together
whether perchance thou dost not boast unrighteously, O Israel, (and) whether that small portion of vinegar and gall has not brought down this fearful threatening upon thee, (and) whether this is not the cause of thy present condition involved in these myriad troubles.
2. Let him then be introduced before us who
speaketh by the Holy Spirit, and saith truth—David the son of
Jesse. He, singing a certain strain with prophetic reference to
the true Christ, celebrated our God by the Holy Spirit, (and) declared
clearly all that befell Him by the hands of the Jews in His passion; 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 are 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 no substance,” that is, help. “My eyes failed while I hoped (or, from my hoping) upon my God; when will He come and save me?”
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, O God, Thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from Thee,” 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 to see” my resurrection on the third day, to wit, the apostles. “Because for Thy sake,” that is, for the sake of obeying Thee, “I have borne reproach,” namely the cross, when “they covered my face with shame,” that is to say, the Jews; when “I 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 Thine house, Father, hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen on me,” and of them that sacrificed to 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 the feast of the passover. “But as for me, in my prayer unto Thee, 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 Thou wilt 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 the “form of the servant” that spake 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 prophet says, 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 thee.