An Answer to the Jews

I demand, again— granting that He who was ever predicted by prophets as destined to come out of Jesse's race, was withal to exhibit all humility, patience, and tranquillity— whether He be come? Equally so (in this case as in the former), the man who is shown to bear that character will be the very Christ who has come. For of Him the prophet says, “A man set in a plague, and knowing how to bear infirmity;” who “was led as a sheep for a victim; and, as a lamb before him who shears him, opened not His mouth.” If He “neither did contend nor shout, nor was His voice heard abroad,” who “crushed not the bruised reed”— Israel's faith, who “quenched not the burning flax” — that is, the momentary glow of the Gentiles— but made it shine more by the rising of His own light—He can be none other than He who was predicted.

The action, therefore, of the Christ who has come must be examined by being placed side by side with the rule of the Scriptures. For, if I mistake not, we find Him distinguished by a twofold operation—that of preaching and that of power. Now, let each count be disposed of summarily. Accordingly, let us work out the order we have set down, teaching that Christ was announced as a preacher; as, through Isaiah: “Cry out,” he says, “in vigour, and spare not; lift up, as with a trumpet, your voice, and announce to my commonalty their crimes, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

Me from day to day they seek, and to learn my ways they covet, as a people which has done righteousness, and has not forsaken the judgment of God,” and so forth: that, moreover, He was to do acts of power from the Father: “Behold, our God will deal retributive judgment; Himself will come and save us: then shall the infirm be healed, and the eyes of the blind shall see, and the ears of the deaf shall hear, and the mutes' tongues shall be loosed, and the lame shall leap as an hart,” and so on; which works not even you deny that Christ did, inasmuch as you were wont to say that, “on account of the works you stoned Him not, but because He did them on the Sabbaths.”