Dispute between Simon the Jew and Theophilus the Christian 2.45–4.2

Simon the Jew said: “What will you say about the fig trees, or by what arguments will you prove in your treatises that the fig is not sin, when the first-formed Adam, in his transgression, sewed fig leaves to cover his shame, which was the itch and bitterness of sin?”

Theophilus the Christian said: “You understand these things on the surface of the skin, Jew. For the fig tree and the covering of leaves are understood as a figure of the old man. But if you are willing to consider the spiritual, that is, the inner man, you will find that the fruit of the fig trees brought to Moses from the land of promise is the spiritual life; as King Hezekiah of Judah, after the increase of his life, received a lump of figs as the most powerful medicine for the health of his flesh. For it would have been enough for God to say: I have added fifteen years to the time of your life. He adds, saying: Take a lump of figs, and crush it, and make a poultice, and you will be healed; namely, so that, the onset of lust broken, you may recover health.

“Let us return now to the humility of Christ’s first coming, of which we were speaking. Hear the prophet Isaiah: Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We have announced concerning him: like a little child; there is no form in him nor honour. And we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty: a man set in affliction and knowing how to bear infirmity. Because his face was turned away, he was despised and not reckoned. He bore our sins and is in sorrows for us. And he, because he was ill-treated, was led like a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before its shearer, so he did not open his mouth. In humility his judgment was taken away. But who will tell his generation? For his life is taken from the earth; by the crimes of my people he was led to death. And I will give the wicked for his burial and the rich for his death, because he did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. But the Lord handed him over for our sins, and he was reckoned among the wicked. Again there he testifies of the humility of his first coming, saying: I gave my back to the scourges and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn my face from the filth of spitting; and the Lord was my helper. And Jeremiah says: I was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and I did not know it.

“Of this lamb, in the image of Christ, Moses celebrated the Passover in Egypt at the deliverance of the people. Nor could the people otherwise have been freed from the house of slavery or from the oppression of Pharaoh, unless a lamb were killed and the Passover celebrated and the doorposts of the house marked with its blood, so that, when that destroying angel came, those in the houses, seeing the sign of blood, might be saved. That sacrament, foretold beforehand, was fulfilled at Christ’s coming. For this Christ was killed at his first coming, to free us from the power of the devil and from the worship of idols. And he is called a yearling, because after he was dipped in the Jordan he preached for a year and so suffered; and we are enrolled on the forehead with his blood, so that at the second coming, when the devastation of this world comes, we may be safe. I will give you as authority for this the prophet Ezekiel, who himself signifies the two comings of Christ, saying: Pass through the midst of Jerusalem and mark a sign on the foreheads of the men who grieve and groan over the iniquities that are done in the land. And again he signifies the second coming, the devastation of those not sealed, saying: Go into the city and do not spare old man or young man, and kill women and little ones with the sword, that they may be destroyed; but those on whom you find the sign, do not touch, and begin from my holy ones. This sign Rahab the harlot too, who was a figure of the church, hung in the window, scarlet and cord, so that when Joshua came to overthrow Jericho, at the sight of the scarlet sign Rahab and those in her house might be saved. So too at the coming of Christ, when Christ the Son of God comes to burn this world with fire, the church and those found sealed on the forehead in it will be saved. So Hosea, who was a type of Christ, is commanded to take a wife of fornication, that is, the church, which Christ took from the fornication of idols: The Lord said this: Take to yourself a wife of fornication; that is, he took her from the fornication of idols, since the beginning of fornication is the service of idols.”

Simon the Jew said: “So the church is a harlot?”

Theophilus the Christian said: “For what does ‘harlot’ mean but one subject to all who come? So too the church denies to none who come to her the gain of faith. For, the synagogue having been divorced, Christ took to himself the church. For hear Jeremiah saying: I have sent away your mother and given her a bill of divorce, that I gave to your mother, that I sent her away. And another prophet says: Plead with your mother, for I am not her husband. For this is Christ the righteous Son of God, of whom Solomon too prophesied in the person of the Jews, saying: Let us lie in wait for the righteous one, because he is useless to us and opposed to our works, and reproaches us with sins against the law, and spreads abroad against us the sins of our discipline. He professes to have the knowledge of God and names himself Son of God. He has become for us a reproof of our thoughts. He is grievous to us even to behold, for his life is unlike others’, and his ways are changed. We are esteemed by him as triflers, and he keeps himself from our ways as from uncleanness, and he extols the latter end of the righteous and boasts that he has God for his father and names himself Son of God. Let us see, then, whether his words are true, and let us test what will happen to him, and let us know what his end will be. For if he is truly the Son of God, he will take him up and deliver him from the hands of his adversaries. Let us examine him with insult and torment, that we may know his reverence and prove his patience. Let us condemn him to a most shameful death; for there will be regard for him from his words. These things they thought, and they erred; for their malice blinded them, and they did not know the mysteries of God. And Moses says in Deuteronomy: You shall not kill the innocent and righteous.

“That he rose from the dead the Scriptures testify. We find in Psalm 15: For you will not abandon my soul to hell, nor will you let your holy one see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; you will fill me with gladness with your countenance. Again in Psalm 29: Lord, you have brought my soul up from hell. Again in Psalm 3 he says: I lay down and slept and rose up, for the Lord will sustain me. And the prophet Hosea testifies that he rose from the dead on the third day, saying: He will revive us after two days, on the third day. Again the Lord in Exodus, saying to Moses: Go down and charge the people and purify them today and tomorrow, that they may wash their garments and be ready on the third day. For on the third day the Lord appeared on Mount Sinai. And Jonah, when he was sent to preach to the Ninevites, showed a type of Christ, who after three days was to come out of the belly of the sea monster, which was hell. And Isaiah says: Now I will arise, says the Lord, now I will be glorified, now you will see, now you will be ashamed; vain will be the strength of your hope; fire will consume you. And in Psalm 77 he says: And the Lord awoke as one asleep, and like a mighty man drunk with wine. By the wine he speaks of, his passion is shown. For in his passion there was darkness from the sixth hour to the ninth; night shut in the day, as the prophet Amos says: The sun will set at noon, and the day of light will be darkened, and I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. And Jeremiah says: She who bears is terrified; weariness has seized her soul; her sun has set while it is still day; she is confounded and cursed; the rest of them I will give to the sword in the sight of their enemies.

“And that after the resurrection he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, all the Scriptures testify, saying in Psalm 67: Make a way for him who ascends over the west; the Lord is his name. They will be troubled at his face, the father of orphans and judge of widows. Again in Psalm 46: God has gone up with shouting, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Again in Psalm 18: His going out is from the highest heaven, and his meeting even to the height of heaven, and there is none who can hide from his heat. The law of the Lord is spotless, converting souls. Again in Psalm 17: He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under his feet; and he ascended upon the Cherubim and flew, he flew upon the wings of the winds, and made darkness his hiding place; at the brightness before him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire; and the Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High gave his voice; he sent from on high and took me and delivered me and rescued me from my most powerful enemies and from those who hated me. And Isaiah says: Who is this who comes from Edom, the Lord, with the redness of his garments from Bozrah, so glorious in his robe and mighty? And in the person of Christ it is answered: I dispute judgment and announce the truth. Again in Psalm 23, as Christ ascends into heaven, it was said to the angels who keep the gates: Lift up your gates, princes, and be lifted up, eternal gates, and the King of glory will come in. But they, who knew that Christ had been inserted by the word into a virgin, wondering that he ascended to heaven in such a guise and bringing back a victorious trophy, ask, saying: Who is this King of glory? To whom the answer is given: The Lord of powers, he is the King of glory. Again in Psalm 109: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet. The Lord sends forth the rod of your power from Zion, and rule in the midst of your enemies. With you is the beginning in the day of your power, in the splendour of the saints. From the womb 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; the Lord is at your right hand.

“Hear now also the glory of the kingdom of his second coming in Daniel: I saw in a vision at night, and behold, in the clouds of heaven one like a son of man coming, and he came to the Ancient of Days, and royal power was given him; all the kings of the earth by their race and all glory will serve him; and his faith is eternal, which is not moved, and his kingdom will not be corrupted. Again in Psalm 92: The Lord has reigned, he has put on beauty; the Lord has put on strength and girded himself with power. For he has established the world, which will not be moved. Your throne is prepared, O God; from that age you are. And in Psalm 49: The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting; from Zion is the beauty of his comeliness. God will come openly, our God, and will not keep silence. Fire will burn before him, and round about him a mighty tempest. He called the heaven above and the earth, to judge his people. Gather to him his holy ones, those who set his covenant in sacrifices. And the heavens will declare his righteousness, for God is judge. Again in Psalm 44 he says: Gird your sword upon your thigh, most mighty one, in your comeliness and your beauty; and set forth, proceed prosperously and reign, because of truth and gentleness and righteousness. Again in Psalm 95 he says: Say among the nations: The Lord has reigned from the tree. Again in Isaiah: A child is born to us, whose government is upon his shoulders, and his name will be called Angel of great counsel. And if you wish to know the fullness of the Gospels, you will find in our John that Christ, going to his passion, carried the cross on his shoulders; of which Isaiah says: whose government is upon his shoulders. Again in Psalm 71: O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king’s son, to judge your people in righteousness and your poor in judgment. Let the mountains receive peace for your people, and the hills righteousness. He will judge the needy of the people and save the children of the poor and humble the slanderer; and he will endure with the sun and before the moon, for generations of generations. In his days righteousness will arise and abundance of peace, until the moon is lifted up. And he will rule from sea to sea and from the rivers to the ends of the world. Before him the Ethiopians will fall down, and his enemies will lick the earth; and they will worship him always; all day they will bless him. And there will be a support on the earth on the tops of the mountains; his fruit will be exalted above Lebanon, and they will flourish from the city like the grass of the earth. Let his name be blessed for ever and ever; his name endures before the sun, and his throne before the moon; and all the tribes of the earth will be blessed in him; all nations will magnify him.”

Simon the Jew said: “You have shown me from my Scriptures, with clear proof, that all things were prefigured in Christ. And I would have wished to believe, if the consideration of this psalm did not call me back. For this psalm was spoken of Solomon; so its title refutes you, since it says: A psalm for Solomon.”

Theophilus the Christian said: “That envious one who deceived the first-formed man and has now deceived your people, through whose envy death came into the world, he it is who has taken hold of the understanding of your heart too, so that, poor wanderer, you do not understand a thing plain and set in the light. For Solomon reigned within fixed bounds of Judea for forty years, from Dan to Beersheba, and afterwards he sinned, as it says in the third book of Kingdoms: And Solomon did evil and did not walk in the way of his father David, and built an idol of Moab, Chemosh, and of Trivia, the abomination of the Sidonians; and the Lord raised up an adversary to Solomon himself, Hadad the Edomite. But the kingdom of Christ has been extended beyond unknown wildernesses. Of whom, then, does God say through the prophet: And he will endure with the sun and before the moon, for generations of generations, and will rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the world? Does he say this of Solomon, whose kingdom and years I have shown you above? But Christ reigns always and everywhere.”

Simon the Jew said: “The enemy of my fathers, the devil, who blinded the eyes of my heart, is withdrawing from my mind, as I see. For I have begun to wish to recognize the light of truth.”

Theophilus the Christian said: “Believe, then, so that, enlightened on each point, you may go out from your bonds; as Isaiah says of Christ: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore he has anointed me and sent me to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken in heart, to lead out of chains those who are bound, and from the prison house those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to give light to the blind. For what is meant by the prison house and men oppressed in chains but the people of this world held by the blindness of ignorance and chained by the sins of the devil? As he says in Genesis: And darkness was upon the deep, and God said: Let there be light! For what is meant by the deep but the hearts of men blinded by the darkness of ignorance? But when Christ comes, who is the light, the darkness of ignorance withdraws.”

Simon the Jew said: “You have revealed to me many hidden and unheard-of things. But there is still in my soul a scruple of distrust, because you observe all things devoutly, yet neglect the Sabbath, which God commanded to be kept and observed; and besides you take food and wine in the manner of the Gentiles, although God specifically commanded which of the animals and fish should be eaten and which abhorred, and that their carcasses should not be touched. Unless this too is proved to me from the Scriptures, I am in danger in believing.”

Theophilus the Christian said: “I told you above too that the devil envies you, because you are a son of your fathers, who, supported by so many benefits and freed from Egypt (the sea stood round its waves in place of walls), provided with lavish feasts in the desert and filled with the heavenly food of manna, in forgetfulness dared to demand profane gods to worship. Rightly God rebukes and reproaches your race through Jeremiah, saying: If the Ethiopian changes his colour and the leopard his spots, so may you too be changed from evil teaching.

“The Sabbath, namely the figurative rest of the seventh day, was handed down, first, because Joshua the son of Nun, to overthrow Jericho, went round its walls in turn for seven days, carrying weapons of war and bearing the ark of the covenant; and on the seventh day they went round seven times. It is plain truth that either they began on a Sabbath, or they overthrew Jericho on a Sabbath when the walls fell. Add this too: that in the Maccabees they won the greatest victory over their enemies on a Sabbath and took vengeance on their adversaries with their swords on a Sabbath. Add this too, that God rejects the human Sabbath, Isaiah saying: Your fasting and your feast days and your Sabbaths my soul hates. You have become a surfeit to me; I will no longer forgive your sins. But God desires that Sabbath: that you must rest from evil works, so that in the seven-thousandth year, which is understood as the Sabbath of Sabbaths, you may be found clean of evil works. This will be the tender Sabbath, holy to God, in which God delights.

“As for the foods which you doubt you ought to eat: you are forbidden to admit not pork, but swinish deeds. Likewise, wallowing in water mixed with mud, you join your sister to yourself in marriage, you join blood with blood, you search the earth with plunder, you make your feasts public, you pray in the streets. See how you sin! And you do not understand that it is written of you in Psalm 16: They were filled with pork, and left the remains to their little ones; that is, you propagate your sin to your posterity. Of fish you eat those with scaly skin; but the others, which you pretend to avoid, drawn out with nets and mixed in the multitude of fish, wholly drained through fish sauce, you eat with relish. As for the wine of the Christians, show me from Scripture where you received that it is forbidden, and you will be able rightly to defeat me. But I will show you where Jewish wine is forbidden and we are forbidden to eat your foods. Hear the prophet Isaiah saying: Your hands are full of blood; wash yourselves, be clean! Again in Psalm 13 he says: Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. See what feet! And with what hands you make wine and unleavened bread! And in Deuteronomy he says: For their wine is of the vine of Sodom, and their shoot of Gomorrah; their grape is a grape of gall, a cluster of bitterness is in them; their wine is the fury of dragons and the incurable fury of asps. Are not these things gathered with me and sealed in my treasuries?

“Refuted by so many and such great testimonies, Simon, even if you cannot believe, you speak against your own salvation. Read Daniel, namely, and you will find Nebuchadnezzar saying: Did we not cast three men into the furnace? Behold, I see four men, and the face of the fourth is the likeness of the Son of God. What do you say, Jew? Nebuchadnezzar, a barbarian, recognized the Son of God, whom you are slow to find. And see that the reproach of the prophet Habakkuk is not fulfilled in you, who says: Look, you despisers, and see and wonder, for I am working a work in your days which you do not believe, if anyone tells it to you.”

Simon the Jew said: “Bearer of salvation, Theophilus, good physician of the sick, I can say no more. Have me catechized and consecrated with the sign of faith in Jesus Christ. For I think that through the laying on of hands I shall receive the washing away of my sins.”

Theophilus the Christian said: “Rather, a blessing! So Isaac blessed Jacob, and he received the blessing through the laying on of a hand, so that the elder came to be from the younger. So too Ephraim and Manasseh were enlarged through the laying on of hands.” Then Theophilus anointed Simon the Jew. And Simon, having obtained faith, began to give thanks, saying: “I thank you, Jesus, whom I have never seen face to face, but now I believe in you. I thank you, Jesus, whom I have never heard, but now I hear. I call on you, Jesus, of whom I had no sense before, but now I desire that my sense be in you, through whom I have come to know Theophilus your disciple. Lord Jesus, if I am worthy of faith, strengthen me also to the knowledge of you. For you show the way to those who wander, and call back the lost, and raise the dead, and strengthen the unbelieving with your faith, and enlighten the eyes of the heart for the blind. You are yourself the holy tabernacle, who were with our fathers in the desert; you are the lampstand of light, you the altar and the bread of the presence, you the altar of sacrifice, you the willing victim; you, Lord, are life and the pearl, the crystal, the yoke, the plough. I pray, Lord, do not remember my ignorance and unbelief. For you are the giver of hidden benefits, who have deigned to give me all things. To you be honour, power, praise, glory, here and for all the immortal ages of ages. Amen.”