To Quirinus: Three Books of Testimonies 1.1–1.24

That the Jews sinned gravely, to God's offense, in forsaking the Lord and following idols.

In Exodus the people say to Aaron: “Rise and make us gods to go before us; for as for this man Moses, who brought us out of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.” Likewise there Moses says to the Lord: “I pray you, Lord, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold and silver. And now, if you forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written.” And the Lord said to Moses: “If anyone has sinned before me, I will blot him out of my book.” Likewise in Deuteronomy: “They sacrificed to demons and not to God.” Likewise in the book of Judges: “And the sons of Israel did evil before the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed the gods of the nations that were around them, and offended the Lord, and forsook God, and served Baal.” Likewise there: “And the sons of Israel again did evil before the Lord, and served Baal and the gods of foreigners, and forsook the Lord and did not serve him.”

That they did not believe the prophets and killed them.

In Jeremiah the Lord says: “I sent to you my servants the prophets; before dawn I sent them, and you did not listen to me nor incline your ears, when I said: Let each one turn from his evil way and from your most wicked desires, and you will dwell in this land which I gave to you and to your fathers from age to age. Do not walk after other gods to serve them, and do not worship them, and do not provoke me with the works of your hands to destroy you. And you did not listen to me.” Likewise in the third book of Kingdoms Elijah says to the Lord: “I have been very jealous for the Lord God almighty, because the sons of Israel have forsaken you; they have torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword; and I alone am left, and they seek to take my life from me.” Likewise in Ezra: “They fell away from you and cast your law behind their backs, and killed your prophets, who testified against them that they should return to you.”

That it was foretold that they would neither know nor understand nor receive the Lord.

In Isaiah the prophet: “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have begotten sons and raised them up, but they have despised me. The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's manger; but Israel has not known me, and the people has not understood me. Woe, sinful nation, a people full of sins, a most wicked seed, lawless sons! You have forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger.” Likewise in the same the Lord says: “Go and say to this people: You will hear with the ear and not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive. For the heart of this people has grown fat, and they have heard heavily with their ears and have shut their eyes, lest perhaps they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I heal them.” Likewise in Jeremiah the Lord says: “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug for themselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water.” Likewise in the same: “Behold, the word of the Lord has become a curse to them; they do not want it.” Likewise in the same the Lord says: “The turtledove and the swallow know their time; the sparrows of the field keep the times of their coming; but my people has not known the judgment of the Lord. How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? The false measuring has been made in vain; the scribes are confounded, the wise have trembled and been caught, because they rejected the word of the Lord.” Likewise in Solomon: “The wicked will seek me and will not find me; for they hated wisdom and did not receive the word of the Lord.” Likewise in Psalm 27: “Render them their recompense, because they did not understand the works of the Lord.” Likewise in Psalm 81: “They have not known nor understood; they walk in darkness.” Likewise in the Gospel according to John: “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. As many as received him, to them he gave power to become sons of God, who believe in his name.”

That the Jews would not understand the holy Scriptures, but that they would be understood in the last times, after Christ had come.

In Isaiah the prophet: “And all these words will be to you like the words of a book that is sealed; if you give it to a man who knows letters to read, he will say, I cannot read it, for it is sealed. But in that day the deaf will hear the words of the book, and those who are in darkness and in cloud; the eyes of the blind will see.” Likewise in Jeremiah: “In the last of days you will know these things.” Likewise in Daniel: “Close up the words and seal the book until the time of the consummation, until many learn and knowledge is fulfilled; for when the dispersion takes place, they will know all these things.” Likewise in the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians: “For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud.” Likewise in the second to the Corinthians: “Their minds were dulled until this day, the same veil remaining in the reading of the old covenant, which is not lifted, because it is done away in Christ; and to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. But as soon as one turns to the Lord, the veil will be taken away.” Likewise in the Gospel the Lord after the resurrection: “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them: For it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations.”

That the Jews can understand nothing of the Scriptures unless they first believe in Christ.

In Isaiah the prophet: “And if you do not believe, neither will you understand.” Likewise the Lord in the Gospel: “For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.” And that righteousness stands by faith and that life is there was foretold in Habakkuk: “But the righteous lives by my faith.” Thus Abraham, the father of the nations, believed. In Genesis: “And Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Likewise the apostle to the Galatians: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know, then, that those who are of faith, these are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God justifies the nations by faith, announced beforehand to Abraham that in you all nations will be blessed. So those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.”

That they would lose Jerusalem and leave the land they had received.

In Isaiah the prophet: “Your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire; strangers will devour your country before your eyes; and the daughter of Zion will be left desolate and overthrown by foreign peoples, like a hut in a vineyard and like a watchman's shelter in a cucumber field, like a city that is besieged. And unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and made like Gomorrah.” Likewise in the Gospel the Lord says: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I wished to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house will be left to you desolate.”

Likewise, that they would lose the light of the Lord.

In Isaiah the prophet: “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord; for he has sent away his people, the house of Israel.” Likewise in his Gospel: “There was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world. He was in this world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.” Likewise there: “He who does not believe has already been judged, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light.”

That the first, fleshly circumcision has been made void, and a second, spiritual circumcision promised instead.

In Jeremiah the prophet: “Thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and those who dwell in Jerusalem: Renew newness among you, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to your God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart, lest my anger go forth like fire and burn, and there be none to quench it.” Likewise Moses says: “In the last days God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed to love the Lord God.” Likewise in Joshua the son of Nun: “And the Lord said to Joshua: Make yourself knives of stone, very sharp, and sit down and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.” Likewise Paul to the Colossians: “You have been circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the stripping off of the flesh, but in the circumcision of Christ.” Likewise, that Adam, the first made by God, was uncircumcised, as were righteous Abel, and Enoch, who pleased God and was taken up, and Noah, who alone was chosen, when all on earth were perishing for their sins, that in him the human race might be preserved, and Melchizedek the priest, after whose order Christ was promised. Then, that that seal does not profit women, whereas all are sealed with the sign of the Lord.

That the former law, which was given through Moses, was to cease.

In Isaiah the prophet: “Then those who seal up the law, so as not to learn it, will be made manifest. And you will say: I wait for God, who has turned away his face from the house of Jacob, and I will trust in him.” Likewise in the Gospel: “All the prophets and the law prophesied until John.”

That a new law was to be given.

In Micah the prophet: “For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and he will judge among many peoples, and will rebuke and lay bare strong nations.” Likewise in Isaiah the prophet: “For from Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and he will judge among the nations.” Likewise in the Gospel according to Matthew: “And behold, a voice from the cloud saying: This is my most beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him.”

That another dispensation and a new covenant was to be given.

In Jeremiah the prophet: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete for the house of Israel and the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.”

That the old baptism was to cease and a new one to begin.

In Isaiah the prophet: “Do not remember the former things, and do not consider the things of old. Behold, I make new things, which will now spring forth, and you will know them; and I will make a way in the desert and rivers in a waterless place, to give drink to my chosen race, my people whom I have acquired, that they might declare my mighty works.” Likewise in the same: “If they thirst in the deserts, he will bring them water; he will bring it out of the rock for them; the rock will be split, and water will flow, and my people will drink.” Likewise in the Gospel according to Matthew John says: “I indeed baptize you in water for repentance; but he who is coming is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.” Likewise according to John: “Unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. For what is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

That the old yoke was to be made void and a new yoke given.

In the second Psalm: “Why have the nations raged and the peoples meditated vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. Let us break their bonds and cast away their yoke from us.” Likewise in the Gospel according to Matthew the Lord says: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is good and my burden is light.”

That the old shepherds were to cease and new ones to begin.

In Ezekiel: “Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hands and turn them away, so that they do not feed my sheep; and they shall no longer feed them, and I will draw my sheep out of their mouth and will feed them with judgment.” In Jeremiah the prophet the Lord says: “And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they will feed you, feeding you with discipline.”

That Christ was to be the house and temple of God, and that the old temple was to cease and a new one begin.

In the second book of Kingdoms: “And the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying: Go and say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord: You shall not build me a house to dwell in; but it shall be, when your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, who will be from your womb, and I will prepare his kingdom. He will build me a house for my name, and I will establish his throne for ever; and I will be to him a father, and he will be to me a son; and his house will obtain faithfulness, and his kingdom for ever in my sight.” Likewise in the Gospel the Lord says: “There will not be left in the temple one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” And: “After three days another will be raised up without hands.”

That the old sacrifice was to be made void and a new one celebrated.

In Isaiah the prophet: “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. I am full of burnt offerings of rams, and I do not want the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls and goats. For who has required these things from your hands?” Likewise in Psalm 49: “Shall I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call on me in the day of your affliction, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” Likewise there: “The sacrifice of praise will honor me; there is the way by which I will show him my salvation.” Likewise in Psalm 4: “Sacrifice a sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in the Lord.” Likewise in Malachi: “I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord, and I will not accept a sacrifice from your hands. For from the rising of the sun even to its setting my name is glorified among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord.”

That the old priesthood was to cease and a new priest to come, who would be for ever.

In Psalm 109: “Before the morning star I begot you. The Lord has sworn and will not repent: You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” Likewise in the first book of Kingdoms God says to Eli the priest: “And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do all that is in my heart; and I will build him a faithful house, and he will walk before my anointed ones all his days. And whoever is left in your house will come to bow down for a small coin of money and for one loaf.”

That another prophet like Moses was promised, namely one who would give a new covenant and who ought rather to be heard.

In Deuteronomy God to Moses: “And the Lord said to me: I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brothers like you, and I will put my word in his mouth, and he will speak to them what I command him. And whoever does not hear what that prophet speaks in my name, I will take vengeance.” Of whom Christ also speaks in the Gospel according to John: “Search the Scriptures, in which you think you have eternal life. These are what bear witness about me; and you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. Do not think that I accuse you before the Father; there is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you hope. For if you had believed Moses, you would believe me too; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

That two peoples were foretold, an elder and a younger, that is, the old people of the Jews and the new one that was to be made up of us.

In Genesis: “And the Lord said to Rebecca: Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will be divided from your belly; and one people will overcome the other, and the elder will serve the younger.” Likewise in Hosea the prophet: “I will call what is not my people my people, and her who was not beloved beloved. For it shall be that in the place where it is said, Not my people, in that place they will be called sons of the living God.”

That the church, which before had been barren, would have more sons from among the nations than the synagogue had had before.

In Isaiah the prophet: “Rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry out, you who are not in labor; for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband. For the Lord has said: Enlarge your tent and fix the pegs of your curtains. Do not spare; lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs. Stretch out further to your right and to your left, and your seed will possess the nations, and you will inhabit the cities that were desolate. Do not fear, for you will prevail, and do not be afraid because you were despised, for you will forget your everlasting shame.” So too with Abraham: when his first son had been born of the slave woman, Sarah remained barren a long time, and late, in old age, according to the promise, she bore a son, Isaac, who was a type of Christ. So too Jacob received two wives: the elder, Leah, with weaker eyes, a type of the synagogue; the younger, beautiful Rachel, a type of the church, who also remained barren a long time and afterwards bore Joseph, who himself was also a type of Christ. And in the first book of Kingdoms Elkanah has two wives, Peninnah with her sons and Hannah, who was barren; of her Samuel is born, not according to the order of generation but according to God's mercy and promise, after she had prayed in the temple; and Samuel, when born, was a type of Christ. Likewise in the first book of Kingdoms: “The barren has borne seven, and she who had very many has become weak.” Now the sons are the seven churches. Hence Paul too writes to seven churches, and the Apocalypse sets out seven churches, so that the number seven may be kept: as the seven days in which God made the world; and the seven angels who stand and go about before the face of God, as the angel Raphael says in Tobit; and the seven-branched lamp in the tabernacle of witness; and the seven eyes of the Lord, which watch over the world; and the stone with seven eyes, as Zechariah says; and the seven spirits and the seven lampstands in the Apocalypse; and the seven pillars on which Wisdom builds her house in Solomon.

That the nations would rather believe in Christ.

In Genesis: “And the Lord God said to Abraham: Go out from your land and from your kindred and from your father's house, and go into the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and bless you and magnify your name, and you will be blessed. And I will bless him who blesses you and curse him who curses you, and in you all the tribes of the earth will be blessed.” Likewise there: “And Isaac blessed Jacob: Behold, the smell of my son is like the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed. And may God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth abundance of grain and wine and oil. And nations will serve you, and rulers will bow down to you; and you will be lord of your brother, and the sons of your father will bow down to you. And whoever curses you will be cursed, and whoever blesses you will be blessed.” Likewise there: “But when Joseph saw that his father had laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it seemed grievous to him; and Joseph took hold of his father's hand to remove it from the head of Ephraim to the head of Manasseh. And Joseph said to his father: Not so, father; this is my firstborn; lay your right hand on his head. But he would not, and said: I know, son, I know. This one too will become a people, and this one will be exalted; but his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed will become a multitude of nations.” Likewise in Genesis: “Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hands will be on the back of your enemies; the sons of your father will bow down to you. Judah is a lion's whelp; from the shoot, my son, you have gone up; lying down you have slept like a lion and like a lion's whelp: who will rouse him? A ruler will not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until the things laid up for him come; and he is the hope of the nations. Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey's foal to the haircloth, he will wash his robe in wine and his garment in the blood of the grape. His eyes are fearsome from wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.” Hence in Numbers it is said of our people: “Behold, a people will rise up like a lion's people.” Likewise in Deuteronomy: “You nations will be the head, but the unbelieving people the tail.” Likewise in Ezekiel: “Hear the sound of the trumpet. And they said: We will not hear. Therefore the nations will hear, and those who feed flocks among them.” Likewise in Psalm 17: “You will make me the head of the nations; a people whom I have not known will serve me.” Likewise in Jeremiah the prophet the Lord says: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb I sanctified you and appointed you a prophet among the nations.” Likewise in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I have shown him as a witness to the nations, a prince and a commander to the nations.” Likewise there: “Nations that did not know you will call on you, and peoples that were ignorant of you will flee to you.” Likewise there: “And in that day there will be the root of Jesse, who will rise to rule the nations; in him the nations will hope, and his rest will be honor.” Likewise there: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, and the rest of you who inhabit the seacoast, and beyond the Jordan, people of the nations walking in darkness, see a great light: you who dwell in the region of the shadow of death, a light will shine upon you.” Likewise there: “Thus says the Lord God to my Christ, the Lord, whose right hand I have held, that the nations may hearken to him: I will break the strength of kings; I will open gates before him, and cities will not be shut.” Likewise there: “I come to gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory; and I will send a sign upon them, and I will send those of them who are saved to the nations that are far off, which have not heard my name nor seen my glory, and they will proclaim my glory among the nations.” Likewise there: “And in all these things they have not turned. Therefore he will lift up a sign to the nations that are far off and will draw them from the ends of the earth.” Likewise there: “Those to whom nothing was told of him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.” Likewise there: “I was made manifest to those who do not seek me; I was found by those who did not ask for me. I said, Here I am, to a nation that did not call on my name.” Likewise in the Acts of the Apostles Paul says: “It was necessary that the word of the Lord be declared to you first; but since you have thrust it away and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the nations. For so the Lord has said through the Scripture: Behold, I have set you as a light among the nations, that you may be for salvation to the ends of the earth.”

That the Jews would lose the bread and cup of Christ and all his grace, while we would receive them; and that the new name of Christians would be blessed on the earth.

In Isaiah the Lord says thus: “Behold, those who serve me will eat, but you will be hungry; behold, those who serve me will drink, but you will thirst; behold, those who serve me will rejoice, but you will be confounded: the Lord will slay you. But to those who serve me a new name will be given, which will be blessed on the earth.” Likewise there: “Therefore he will lift up a sign among the nations that are far off and will draw them from the ends of the earth; and behold, they will come quickly and lightly; they will not hunger or thirst.” Likewise there: “Behold, therefore, the ruler, the Lord of hosts, will take away from Judea and from Jerusalem the strong man and the strong woman, the strength of bread and the strength of water.” Likewise in Psalm 33: “Taste and see that the Lord is sweet; blessed is the man who hopes in him. Fear the Lord, you his saints, for nothing is lacking to those who fear him. The rich have become needy and hungry, but those who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing.” Likewise in the Gospel according to John the Lord says: “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.” Likewise there: “If anyone thirsts, let him come and drink, he who believes in me.” Likewise there: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you.”

That the nations rather than the Jews come to the kingdom of heaven.

In the Gospel the Lord says: “Many will come from the east and the west and will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom will go out into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

That the Jews can receive pardon for their sins only in this way: if they wash away the blood of the slain Christ in his baptism and, passing over into the church, obey his precepts.

In Isaiah the prophet the Lord says: “I will no longer forgive your sins. When you stretch out your hands, I will turn my face from you; and if you multiply prayers, I will not hear you; for your hands are full of blood. Wash, be clean; take away the wickedness from your souls, from before my eyes; cease from your wickedness. Learn to do good, seek judgment, protect him who suffers wrong, judge for the orphan, and justify the widow. And come, let us reason together, says the Lord: and if your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and if they are like crimson, I will make them like white wool. And if you are willing and hear me, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you are unwilling and do not hear me, the sword will devour you. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.”