Letters 196.1–197.5

The letter of Your Holiness, which you sent to the venerable old man Donatianus on the question of avoiding Judaism, he himself deigned to send to me, and by asking very earnestly commanded me to answer it. Fearing to disregard him, I answer as well as I can with the Lord's help, thinking that it will also be welcome to Your Charity that, in writing to you, I did not refuse to obey him whom we both revere for his merits.

The apostle Paul teaches that Christians, especially those coming from the Gentiles, ought not to Judaize, where he says: 'I said to Peter before them all: If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to Judaize?' And he went on to add: 'We who are Jews by nature and not sinners from the Gentiles, yet knowing that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, we too have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no flesh will be justified.'

And not only those works of the law which belong to the old sacraments and are not observed by Christians now that the new covenant has been revealed, such as circumcision of the foreskin, the carnal rest of the sabbath, abstinence from certain foods, the slaughter of animals in sacrifices, the new moon, unleavened bread and other things of this kind, but even what is said in the law, 'You shall not covet', which no one doubts must be said to Christians too, does not justify a person except through faith in Jesus Christ and the grace of God through Christ our Lord. For the same apostle says: 'What then shall we say? Is the law sin? By no means! But I did not know sin except through the law; for I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, You shall not covet. But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every covetousness. For without the law sin is dead. I was once alive without the law; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died; and the commandment which was for life was found to be for me unto death. For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Did what is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But sin, that it might appear as sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that sin might become sinful beyond measure through the commandment. For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For I do not know what I am doing; for I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. But if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.'

We see, then, in these apostolic words that the law is not only not sin but is holy, and the commandment by which it is said, 'You shall not covet', is holy and just and good. But sin deceives through what is good and through it kills those who, being carnal, think they can fulfil the spiritual law by their own powers; and through this they become not only sinners, which they would be even if they had not received the law, but also transgressors, which they would not be if they had not received the law. For so he says in another place: 'Where there is no law, there is no transgression.' 'So the law came in', as he testifies elsewhere, 'so that the trespass might abound; but where the trespass abounded, grace superabounded.'

This, then, is the usefulness of the law: that it shows a person to himself, so that he may know his weakness and see how carnal concupiscence is increased rather than healed by prohibition. For forbidden things are desired more ardently, as long as one who is carnal is compelled to observe what is commanded spiritually. But one becomes spiritual, so as to fulfil the spiritual law, not by the law itself but by grace, that is, not by command but by benefit, not by the letter commanding but by the Spirit helping. A person begins, according to grace, to be renewed in the inner self, so as to do with the mind what he loves and not to consent to the flesh doing what he hates; that is, not so as not to covet at all, but so as not to go after his desires. This is indeed so great that, if it were done in every way, and, although the desires of sin are present while we are in the body of this death, we gave consent to none of them, there would be no reason for us to say to our Father who is in heaven, 'Forgive us our debts.' Yet we would not even then be such as we shall be when this mortal puts on immortality; for then we shall not only obey no desire of sin, but there will be no such desires for us to be commanded not to obey.

Now, therefore, where it is said, 'It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me', it is said of the concupiscence of the flesh, which produces its movements in us even when we do not obey them, as long as sin does not reign in our mortal body to make us obey its desires, and we do not present our members to sin as weapons of iniquity. In this righteousness, not yet completed, making persevering progress toward its completion, we shall at some time arrive where the concupiscence of sin is not to be restrained and bridled but does not exist at all. For the law set this when it said, 'You shall not covet', not as something we can do here, but as something toward which we strive by progressing. But this happens not by the law, which commands it, but by faith, which obtains it; not by the letter, by which it is commanded, but by the Spirit, by whom it is given; not, therefore, by the merits of the human being who works, but by the grace of the Saviour who bestows. So the usefulness of the law is that it convicts a person of his weakness and compels him to implore the medicine of grace, which is in Christ. 'For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe him whom they have not heard?' Hence a little later he says: 'So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.'

This being so, those who rejoice in being Israelites according to the flesh and glory in the law apart from the grace of Christ are those of whom the same apostle says that, ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish their own, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God. He called God's righteousness that which comes to a person from God, and their own that by which they think they are sufficient to do the commandments without the help and gift of him who gave the law. Like them are those who, while professing to be Christians, so oppose the grace of Christ that they think they fulfil the divine commandments by human powers; and so they too, ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish their own, have not submitted to the righteousness of God, and Judaize, not indeed in name, but in error. This kind of people had found as their heads Pelagius and Caelestius, most vehement assertors of this ungodliness, who by the recent judgment of God, through his diligent and faithful servants, have been deprived even of Catholic communion and, because of an unrepentant heart, still persist in their condemnation.

Whoever seeks to be a stranger to this carnal and natural, and therefore not undeservedly reprehensible and condemnable, Judaism must not only make himself a stranger to those old observances, which, now that the new covenant has been revealed and the things they signified as to come have come, have beyond doubt ceased to be necessary, so that no one is to be judged in food and drink, or in the matter of a festival or new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come; but also those things commanded in the law in such a way as to serve to form the conduct of believers, that is, 'that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we may live soberly, justly and godly in this world', from which comes also this, which the apostle chose to commend above all from the law, 'You shall not covet', and whatever is commanded in the law about loving God and neighbour without any figures of sacraments, on which two commandments the Lord Christ himself says the whole law and the prophets hang: these he so accepts, so embraces, so does not doubt must be observed, that whatever progress he makes in them he attributes not to himself but to the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

But when someone has become a true and genuine Christian in this way, it is rightly asked whether he should also be called a Jew or an Israelite. If this is understood to be so not in the flesh but in the spirit, he ought not to apply the name itself to himself in ordinary speech, but keep it in spiritual understanding, lest, because of the ambiguity of the word, which everyday speech does not distinguish, he seem to profess what is hostile to the Christian name. This question, namely whether one who is a Christian can also be understood to be a Jew or an Israelite, the same blessed apostle opens and solves for us, where he says: 'Circumcision indeed is of value if you keep the law; but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. If, then, an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not he who is by nature uncircumcised, fulfilling the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit, not in letter; his praise is not from men but from God.' When, then, we hear the apostle of Christ commending to us a Jew inwardly, by circumcision not of the flesh but of the heart, in spirit not in letter, who is this but a Christian?

So we are Jews, not carnally but spiritually, just as we are the offspring of Abraham, not according to the flesh, like those who glory in that very name with carnal pride, but according to the spirit of faith, which they are not. For we know that we were promised when God said to him, 'I have made you the father of many nations.' And we know how much the apostle says on this matter. 'For we say', he says, 'that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted? When he was circumcised, or when he was uncircumcised? Not when circumcised, but when uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe while uncircumcised, so that righteousness might be counted to them too, and the father of circumcision to those who are not only of the circumcision but who also follow the footsteps of the faith which our father Abraham had while uncircumcised.' And a little later: 'Therefore', he says, 'it is by faith, so that the promise may be firm according to grace for all the offspring, not only for that which is of the law, but also for that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written: I have made you the father of many nations.' Likewise to the Galatians: 'Just as Abraham', he says, 'believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know therefore that those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God justifies the Gentiles by faith, announced beforehand to Abraham that in you all nations will be blessed, so that those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.' And somewhat later in the same letter: 'Brothers,' he says, 'I speak in human terms: even a man's covenant, once ratified, no one annuls or adds to. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, and to offsprings, as of many, but as of one, and to your offspring, which is Christ.' Again a little later: 'For you are all one in Christ Jesus; and if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.'

According to this apostolic understanding, then, Jews who are not Christians, though they draw their origin from the flesh of Abraham, are found not to be sons of Abraham. For when he says, 'Know therefore that those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham', he certainly means that those who are not of faith are not sons of Abraham. And therefore, unless Abraham is father to the Jews in the way he is to us, what does it profit them that they have sprung from his flesh and have kept the name without the reality? But when they pass over to Christ and begin to be sons of Abraham by faith, then they will be Jews not outwardly but inwardly, by circumcision of the heart, in spirit not letter, whose praise is not from men but from God. But if estranged from this faith, they will be counted among the broken branches of that olive tree into whose root, the same apostle says, the wild olive, that is, the Gentiles, is grafted; which certainly happens not through the flesh but through faith, not through the law but through grace, not through the letter but through the Spirit, not by circumcision of the flesh but of the heart, not outwardly but inwardly, not with praise from men but from God; so that every Christian, as he is not a carnal but a spiritual son of Abraham, so is not a carnal but a spiritual Jew, and not a carnal but a spiritual Israelite. For of this name too the apostle speaks thus: 'For not all who are from Israel are Israel, nor, because they are the offspring of Abraham, are they all sons; but in Isaac your offspring will be called; that is, not those who are children of the flesh are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.' Are these not great wonders and a deep mystery, that many born of Israel are not Israel, and many are not sons, though they are the offspring of Abraham? How are they not, how are we, except that they are not children of the promise belonging to the grace of Christ, but children of the flesh bearing an empty name? And so neither are they Israel as we are, nor are we Israel as they are; for we are so according to spiritual regeneration, they according to carnal generation.

For we must notice and distinguish that one Israel received the name because of the flesh, and another obtained, because of the Spirit, the reality signified by that name. Were the Israelites born of Hagar, Sarah's slave woman? Was not Ishmael born of her, and did he not propagate by his offspring the nation not of the Israelites but of the Ishmaelites? But from Sarah came Israel through Isaac, who was born to Abraham by promise. Yet although this is how matters stand according to the descent of the flesh, one comes to the spiritual understanding and finds that the carnal Israelites, who draw their fleshly origin from her, do not belong to Sarah, and that Christians rather belong to her, who are not children of the flesh like Ishmael, but children of the promise like Isaac, belonging not to the carnal offspring of Isaac himself but to the spiritual mystery. For thus the apostle speaks to the Galatians: 'Tell me, you who want to be under the law, have you not heard the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman through promise. These things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery, which is Hagar; for Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, which corresponds to the present Jerusalem; for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother. For it is written: Rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry out, you who are not in labour; for the children of the desolate one are more than of her who has a husband. Now we, brothers, are children of the promise like Isaac. But just as then the one born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so it is now. But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son; for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. So, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free; with that freedom Christ has set us free.'

See, according to this spiritual and apostolic understanding, we rather belong to the free woman Sarah, though we draw no fleshly descent from her; while the Jews, who draw fleshly descent from her, are shown rather to belong to the slave Hagar, from whom they do not draw fleshly descent. In the grandchildren too of Abraham and Sarah, that is, the sons of Isaac and Rebecca, in those twins Esau and Jacob, who was later called Israel, this same great and deep mystery is found. Speaking of it the same apostle, after he had mentioned the children of the promise belonging to the grace of Christ through Isaac, says: 'And not only so, but also Rebecca, having conceived from one act of intercourse with our father Isaac. For when they were not yet born and had done nothing good or evil, so that God's purpose according to election might stand, not from works but from him who calls, it was said to her that the elder will serve the younger, as it is written: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.' This apostolic and Catholic teaching certainly shows us clearly enough that according to the origin of the flesh the Jews, that is, the Israelites, belong to Sarah, and the Ishmaelites to Hagar; but according to the mystery of the Spirit, Christians belong to Sarah and Jews to Hagar; likewise according to the origin of the flesh the nation of the Idumaeans belongs to Esau, who was also called Edom, and the nation of the Jews to Jacob, who was also called Israel; but according to the mystery of the Spirit the Jews belong to Esau and Christians to Israel. For so is fulfilled what is written, 'The elder will serve the younger', that is, the people of the Jews, born first, will serve the people of the Christians, born later. See how we are Israel, glorying in divine adoption, not human kinship, and Jews not outwardly but inwardly, not in letter but in spirit, not by circumcision of the flesh but of the heart.

This being so, however, we ought not to confuse the usage of human speech with silly talkativeness and, in distinguishing things, mix up familiar words with confused meanings, so that someone would affect to call by an unusual word 'Jews' those who, being Christians, are called Christians by the most customary name; or, though he himself is and is called a Christian, would rather delight in the name of Israelite, and would choose to use frequently in everyday speech, with silly arrogance and, if it can be said, unskilled knowledge, what he ought always to understand in mystery but utter more sparingly with the mouth. For did not the apostles, through whom we have learned these things, know them: how we are rather the offspring of Abraham, heirs of the promise like Isaac, and Jews in spirit not letter, by circumcision of the heart not of the flesh, and not Israel according to the flesh but the Israel of God? They certainly knew these things much more wisely and certainly than we; and yet in the usage of speech they called Jews and Israelites those who, coming from the stock of Abraham according to the flesh, were called by this name by everyone.

'Jews ask for signs', says the apostle Paul, 'and Greeks seek wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.' Those he called Greeks he also signified by the name of Gentiles, because this language is most eminent among the Gentiles; yet he called Jews those whom everyone calls by this name. For if Christians themselves are Jews, then Christ crucified is a stumbling block to Christians, of whom it is said, 'a stumbling block to Jews'. Who but a complete madman would think so? Again he says: 'Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God.' How would he distinguish these if he ought to call the church of God too 'Jews' in everyday usage? Again he says: 'Us whom he has called not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles.' How did he call from the Jews, if he rather called from non-Jews so that they might be Jews? Again, of the Israelites: 'What then shall we say?' he says; 'That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, took hold of righteousness, the righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not attain to the law. Why? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if by works; for they stumbled over the stone of stumbling.' Again: 'But to Israel what does he say? All day long I have stretched out my hands to a people unbelieving and contradicting.' And he went on to add: 'I say then: Has God rejected his people? By no means! For I too am an Israelite, from the offspring of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.' How did the apostle here call Israel unbelieving and contradicting, if Christians are Israel? Or how did he call himself an Israelite? Was it because he had become a Christian? Certainly not, but because according to the flesh he was from the offspring of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, which we are not according to the flesh, although according to faith we are the offspring of Abraham and therefore also Israel. But it is one thing that the understanding of a higher mystery recognizes, another that everyday usage of the word demands.

Finally, this Aptus, whoever he is, of whom you wrote that he teaches Christians to Judaize, calls himself a Jew and an Israelite, as Your Holiness indicated, in such a way as to forbid them foods which the law given through the holy servant of God Moses forbade as suited to that time, and to urge the other observances of that time, now abolished and removed among Christians, which the apostle calls shadows of things to come, so that prophecy may be understood in them and their observance be shown to be now made void. From this it is clear why this Aptus wants to be called an Israelite and a Jew, not spiritually but wholly carnally. But we are not bound by those observances which have been made void by the revelation of the new covenant; and the precepts of the law necessary also for this time, such as 'You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not covet', and any other commandment summed up in this word, 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself', we have learned and teach are to be observed, not by human powers as if establishing our own righteousness, but by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the righteousness which is ours from him. Yet we do not therefore deny that we are the offspring of Abraham, to whom the apostle says, 'You then are Abraham's offspring', or Jews inwardly, of whom the same apostle says, 'For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit not letter, whose praise is not from men but from God', or spiritual Israelites, belonging, that is, to the younger, whom it was foretold the elder would serve. But we do not apply these names to ourselves inappropriately; we keep them in the understanding of the mysteries and do not bandy them about in unusual speech.

Now that our fellow presbyter Cornutus, your son, is returning to Your Holiness (through him I received the letter of Your Reverence, in which you were good enough to visit my littleness), I at last pay my reply and the duty I owe of returning your greeting, commending myself earnestly to your prayers, which are most acceptable to the Lord, my lord brother. As for the prophetic sayings, often foretold, about which you wished me to write something, it seemed better to me to send Your Blessedness the expositions of those same words by the holy Jerome, a most learned man, excerpted from his works, in case you happen not to have them. But if you already had them and they did not satisfy your inquiry, I ask you not to mind writing back to me what you think of them, and how you yourself understand these same prophetic oracles. For my part, I think that the passage about the weeks of Daniel above all should be understood of the time that has already passed; for as to the coming of the Savior, which is awaited at the end, I do not dare to count up the times, and I do not think that any prophet set out the number of years in advance on this matter, but rather that what the Lord himself said holds good: “No one can know the times which the Father has put in his own power.”

For as to what he says in another place, “But of the day and hour no one knows,” there are some who take it in such a way that they think they can compute the times, and that only the very day and hour are known to no one. Here I pass over how the Scriptures commonly use “day” or “hour” also for a time. But at any rate what was said about our ignorance of the times was said most plainly. For when the Lord was questioned on this by his disciples, he said: “No one can know the times which the Father has put in his own power.” He did not say “the day” or “the hour” but “the times,” a word not usually used of a brief space, as “day” or “hour” are; especially if we look at the Greek expression, the language from which, as we know, the very book in which this is written was translated into ours, although it could not be adequately expressed in Latin. For there in Greek one reads chronous ē kairous (χρόνους ἢ καιρούς). But our people call both these words “times,” whether chronous or kairous, although they have a difference between them that should not be neglected. The Greeks call kairous “times,” it is true, but not those that pass by in the rolling course of spans, but those that are felt in things as unseasonable or seasonable for something, such as harvest, vintage, heat, cold, peace, war, and anything similar; whereas they call the very spans of time chronous.

And certainly the apostles did not ask this as though they had wanted to know a single last day or hour, that is, a small part of a day, but whether the opportune time had already come in which the kingdom should be restored to Israel. Then they heard: “No one can know the times which the Father has put in his own power,” that is, chronous ē kairous. Even if it were said in Latin “times or opportunities,” what was said would not be expressed even so, because times are called kairoi whether they are opportune or inopportune. Therefore to compute the times, that is, chronous, so that we may know when the end of this age or the coming of the Lord will be, seems to me nothing else than to wish to know what he himself says no one can know.

The opportune moment of that time, however, will certainly not come before the gospel is preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations. For there is a most plain statement of the Savior on this matter, where he says: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” What does “then it will come” mean if not that it will not come before? How long afterward it will come, then, is uncertain to us; but that it will not come before, we certainly ought not to doubt. So if the servants of God were to undertake this labor of travelling through the whole world, as far as they could, and gathering what nations remain where the gospel has not yet been preached, we might from this in some way perceive how far this time is from the end of the age. But if it is not believed possible, because of certain inaccessible and inhospitable places, for the servants of God to travel through the world and faithfully report how many and how great nations are still without the gospel of Christ, much less, I think, can it be gathered from the Scriptures how great the times are that will run until the end, since in them we read: “No one can know the times which the Father has put in his own power.” Hence, even if it had already been reported to us with complete certainty that the gospel was being preached in all nations, not even so could we say how much time remained until the end; but we would rightly say that it was drawing nearer and nearer, unless someone should reply that, since the gospel has been preached with such speed, the Roman peoples and very many barbarian ones have been taken hold of, and some have been converted to the faith of Christ not gradually but suddenly, so that it is not incredible that within a few years (if not of our life, for we are already old, then certainly of the young who will come to old age) all the remaining nations altogether can be filled with the gospel. But if it is to be so, it can more easily be proved by experience when it has happened than discovered by reading before it happens.

What compelled me to say this was the opinion of a certain man, whom the presbyter Jerome also marks as rash, because he dared to explain the weeks of Daniel of the future coming of Christ, not of the past one. But if the Lord, for its greater merits, has revealed or shall reveal something better to the holy humility of your heart, I ask you to be good enough to share it with us, and to receive this reply of ours as from a man who would rather have knowledge than ignorance of the things you asked me about; but since I have not yet been able to have it, I choose rather to confess a cautious ignorance than to profess a false knowledge.