# Against the Jews, Pagans, and Arians (Sermon on the Creed) - Author: [Quodvultdeus of Carthage](https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/authors/quodvultdeus-of-carthage/) - Latin title: *Contra Iudaeos, paganos et Arianos sermo de symbolo* - Date: ca. 437-450 (disputed) - Source: J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, series Latina, vol. 42 (Paris, 1865), among the works of Augustine; digital text of the printed volume (Latin text: Migne, Patrologia Latina, digitized by Open Greek and Latin (patrologia_latina-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0) - Translation: Claude, from the original text, unless a passage says otherwise; each passage below gives the translator - Editions and translations: Rene Braun, ed., CCSL 60 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1976) (cited only) - Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/ - Passages: 20 ## Chapter 1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/1/#p-1 - Source: PL 42 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: After the night vigil the preacher explains to those about to be baptized that renouncing the devil means casting off the works of darkness and believing in God means putting on the armor of light. ### Latin text Inter pressuras atque angustias præsentis temporis et nostræ officia servitutis cogimur, dilectissimi, non tacere, cum potius expediat flere magis quam aliquid dicere: verumtamen ne quid minus lucri arcæ dominicæ accedens, dicatur nobis, Serve nequam et piger, tu erogare pecuniam meam, et ego veniens cum usuris exigerem eam (Matth. xxv, 26, 27): peto Charitatem vestram, ut quæ ipse paterfamilias per nos vobis ministraverit, libenter accipere dignemini: Apostoli verba sunt, Nox præcessit, dies autem appropinquavit: deponentes ergo opera tenebrarum induite vos arma lucis (Rom. XIII, 12). Expulsa itaque noctis caligine, effugatisque tenebris peccatorum, radius veri luminis fulgeat in cordibus nostris. Exigit enim a nobis ratio hujus tantae congregationis, et noctis transactæ vobis reddere rationem, et istius diei de tanto sacramento percepto veram sempiternamque demonstrare salutem. Si enim opera transactae noctis consideremus, et quid egerimus, Domino donante, explicare valuerimus; inveniemus nos in nocte, non opera noctis, sed diei peregisse. Neque enim delectatione somni sopitos sensus nostros agnovimus, nec phantasmatibus animas nostras illusas, nec ipsa corpora stramentorum calore depressa in alto sopore requies inclinavit: sed vigilando, orando, psallendo, contra adversarium diabolum dimicando, et magnam lucem infusam cordibus nostris sensimus, et in nocte opera diei peregimus. Quid enim egimus in hac nocte? Diabolum fugavimus, Christum introduximus. Quid egimus in hac nocte? Captivatorem captivavimus. Quid egimus in hac nocte? Tenebras diabolicas de cordibus vestris exclusimus, lumen verum hauriendum esse demonstravimus. Quid actum est in hac nocte? Veniens vera fortitudo alligavit fortem, et vasa domus ejus diripuit (Matth. XII). Quid actum est in hac nocte? Exstirpata est superbia, introducta est humilitas. Quid actum est in hac nocte? Princeps omnium vitiorum expulsus est, fons omnium bonorum susceptus est. Videtis, dilectissimi, quæ bona habeatis præparata, et ex quo onere, vel ex quibus sarcinis peccatorum relevamini ab isto qui vos vocat ut suscipiatis iugum ejus lene, et sarcinam ejus levem (Id. XI, 29): Deponentes itaque opera tenebrarum, induite vos arma lucis. Quid sit hoc, ex verbis Symboli quod modo accepistis, vobis expositum esse cognoscite. Quid est, Deponite opera tenebrarum; nisi, Renuntiate diabolo, pompis, et angelis ejus? Et quid est, Induite vos arma lucis; nisi, Credite in Deum Patrem omnipotentem? ### English translation (Claude) Amid the pressures and straits of the present time and the duties of our service we are compelled, dearly beloved, not to keep silent, though it would be more fitting to weep than to say anything. Yet, so that the Lord’s treasury may receive no less profit, and it not be said to us, “Wicked and lazy servant, you should have paid out my money, and on my return I would have required it with interest,” I ask your Charity to be pleased to receive gladly what the householder himself has ministered to you through us. These are the Apostle’s words: “The night is far gone, the day is at hand; so cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” So, with the gloom of night driven out and the darkness of sins put to flight, let the ray of the true light shine in our hearts. For the purpose of this great gathering requires of us both to give you an account of the night that has passed and to show the true and everlasting salvation of this day, from the great sacrament you have received. If we consider the works of the past night, and can, by the Lord’s gift, explain what we did, we will find that in the night we did not the works of the night but those of the day. For we did not find our senses lulled by the pleasure of sleep, nor our souls deceived by phantoms, nor did rest bend our bodies, weighed down by the warmth of bedding, into deep slumber; but by keeping vigil, praying, singing psalms, and fighting against the adversary the devil, we felt a great light poured into our hearts and did the works of the day in the night. What, then, did we do this night? We put the devil to flight; we brought Christ in. What did we do this night? We took the captor captive. What did we do this night? We shut the devil’s darkness out of your hearts; we showed that the true light must be drunk in. What was done this night? The true strength came, bound the strong man, and plundered the goods of his house. What was done this night? Pride was rooted out, humility brought in. What was done this night? The prince of all vices was driven out, the fountain of all good things was received. You see, dearly beloved, what good things you have prepared for you, and from what burden, from what loads of sins, you are relieved by him who calls you to take up his easy yoke and his light burden. “Cast off,” then, “the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” What this means, know that it has been explained to you from the words of the Creed which you have just received. What is “Cast off the works of darkness,” if not “Renounce the devil, his pomps, and his angels”? And what is “Put on the armor of light,” if not “Believe in God the Father almighty”? ### Scripture references - Matt 25:26–27: quotation, medium confidence - Rom 13:12: quotation, high confidence - Eph 4:8: echo, low confidence - Matt 12:29: allusion, high confidence - Matt 11:29–30: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - The sermon is addressed to candidates for baptism who have just received the Creed. Migne prints marginal headings at the start of each chapter (here “Christianæ vigiliæ”); they are removed. The parable quotation (Matt 25:26–27, cf. Luke 19:23) is given loosely; the printed “tu erogare” is translated by sense. ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 1 (PL 42; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/1). ## Chapter 2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/1/#p-2 - Source: PL 42 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: The devil, a proud angel who fell, envied Adam and stripped him of chastity, temperance, love, and immortality, binding all his descendants with him. ### Latin text Prius tamen, dilectissimi, discutiamus, qui sit, vel quid sit diabolus, et quæ sint pompæ ejus, quibus renuntiantes, opera deponimus tenebrarum: tunc demum de Deo Patre omnipotente, qui est vera lux, quantum ipse donaverit, Charitati vestræ dicemus. Quid est diabolus? Angelus per superbiam separatus a Deo. qui non stetit in veritate, auctor mendacii, et a semetipso deceptus, qui alterum decipere concupivit. Iste adversarius effectus humani generis, inventor mortis, superbiae institutor, radix malitiæ, scelerum caput, princeps omnium vitiorum, persuasor etiam turpium voluptatum Hic dum illum primum, Adam scilicet, patrem omnium nostrum intueretur, videretque hominem ex limo terræ ad imaginem Dei factum, pudicitia ornatum, temperantia compositum, charitate circumdatum, immortalitate vestitum, æmulus atque invidus hæc hominem terrenum accepisse, quod ipse dum esset angelus per superbiam cognoscitur amisisse, invidit statim insatiabilis homicida, eosque nostros primos parentes illis donis ac tantis bonis exspoliavit, insuper et peremit. Namque, dilectissimi, cum tanta bona homini diabolus abstulisset, pudicitiam, continentiam, charitatem. immortalitatem, eumque nudatum ac turpem reddidisset, obsitum suis pannis deridens eum, suo dominio obstrinxit, atque ex illo vinculo omnem prolem ejus sibimet obligavit. Turpes enim pannos suscepit Adam, quando a diabolo exspoliatus, amissa pudicitia, accinctus est impudicitia; amissa temperantia, intemperans effectus est; perdita charitate, malus inventus est; exspoliatus immortalitate, morti propinatus est. Heu! quid perdidit, et quid accepit! Ad hos etiam turpissimos pannos suos posteros obligavit. ### English translation (Claude) But first, dearly beloved, let us discuss who or what the devil is, and what his pomps are, by renouncing which we cast off the works of darkness; then at last, so far as he grants, we will speak to your Charity about God the Father almighty, who is the true light. What is the devil? An angel separated from God through pride, who did not stand in the truth, the author of the lie, deceived by himself, who desired to deceive another. He became the adversary of the human race, the inventor of death, the founder of pride, the root of malice, the head of crimes, the prince of all vices, and the persuader to shameful pleasures. When he looked upon that first man, Adam, the father of us all, and saw man made from the mud of the earth in the image of God, adorned with chastity, ordered by temperance, surrounded by love, clothed with immortality, he was jealous and envious that an earthly man had received the things which he himself, while he was an angel, is known to have lost through pride. At once the insatiable murderer envied, and stripped our first parents of those gifts and so many good things, and killed them besides. For, dearly beloved, when the devil had taken from man such great goods, chastity, continence, love, immortality, and had made him naked and shameful, he mocked him, clothed in his own rags, bound him to his dominion, and by that bond made all his offspring his own. For Adam took on shameful rags when he was stripped by the devil: having lost chastity, he was girded with unchastity; having lost temperance, he became intemperate; having lost love, he was found evil; stripped of immortality, he was handed over to death. Alas, what he lost, and what he received! To these most shameful rags of his he bound his descendants as well. ### Scripture references - John 8:44: allusion, high confidence - Gen 2:7: allusion, medium confidence - Gen 1:27: allusion, medium confidence - Gen 3:7: echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - The printed text is damaged at “exspo- Hiatus pudicitia”; the correction restores the evident sense (“stripped … having lost chastity”). ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 2 (PL 42; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/2). ## Chapter 3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/1/#p-3 - Source: PL 42:1119 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: Pleading the case of the human race, an orphan in debt to the devil, before the apostles, the preacher gives their verdict: renounce the devil, his pomps, and his angels. ### Latin text Renuntiemus huic damnosae hæreditati: pupilli effecti sumus. Antequam exactor veniat, tam pessimæ hæreditati, in qua sunt panni diaboli, pompae scilicet et angelis ejus si quis renuntiare neglexerit; cum judex venerit. sicut Evangelium loquitur, tradetur debitor exactori, exactor autem debitorem in carcerem trudet. Amen dico tibi, ait Dominus, non exies inde, donec reddas novissimum quadrantem (Matth. v, 26). Omne itaque genus humanum tanquam pauperem et pupillum commendat Scriptura divina, dicens Deo, Tibi derelictus est pauper, pupillo tu eris adjutor. Ejusque adversarium diabolum demonstrans, secutus adjunxit, Contere brachium peccatoris et maligni (Psal. II, 14, 15. sec. Hebræos). Adsit itaque aliquis homo pius, et aliquam misericordiam huic pupillo et pauperi exhibeat. Ferocem enim atque callidum adversarium patitur, et hic pupillus in causa sua deficit; quoniam eum suus adversarius pravis actibus obligavit. Adhibeamus huic pupillo idoneos defensores, et Apostolorum tanquam jurisperitorum cœlestium ei patrocinium subrogemus. Quid est agendum apud tales pro tali? Apud vos itaque, Petre, Paule, Joannes, cæterique sancti consiliarii veri judicis, amici summae potestatis, causam exponimus, quam optime nostis, hujus pauperis et pupilli, generis scilicet humani, qui ex paterno chirographo debitor inventus reus, atque constrictus ab adversario detinetur: non est aliud, quemadmodum huic subveniatur, nisi ex vestro consilio. Quid itaque in hoc negotio vestrae serenitati videatur pro hujus miseri libertate, ex communi tractatu unitam pro eo dignamini proferre sententiam. Et vos enim astrinxerat hæc obligatio, nisi vobis gratia subveniret. Liberati liberate: consilium quod a vero judice accepistis, promite; ut hoc sequatur qui captivus detinetur, atque ex mala servitute per vestram defensionem ad veram perveniat libertatem. Et haec est vox omnium: Quod fuimus faciat. Quid, obsecro, facturus est? Renuntiet diabolo, pompis et angelis ejus: hæc est illa damnosa hæreditas, cui renuntiare compellimur. Videtis, dilectissimi, qualem sententiam protulerunt nostri defensores. ### English translation (Claude) Let us renounce this ruinous inheritance: we have become orphans. If anyone neglects to renounce, before the collector comes, this worst of inheritances, in which are the devil’s rags, that is, his pomps and his angels, then when the judge comes, as the Gospel says, the debtor will be handed over to the collector, and the collector will thrust the debtor into prison. “Truly I say to you,” says the Lord, “you will not get out from there until you pay the last penny.” So divine Scripture commends the whole human race as a poor man and an orphan, saying to God, “To you the poor man is left; you will be the orphan’s helper.” And pointing to his adversary the devil, it adds next, “Break the arm of the sinner and the wicked.” Let some devout person come forward, then, and show some mercy to this orphan and poor man. For he faces a fierce and cunning adversary, and this orphan is losing his case, because his adversary has bound him through evil deeds. Let us bring in suitable advocates for this orphan, and put in his place the patronage of the apostles, as of heavenly jurists. What must be done before such persons for such a one? Before you, then, Peter, Paul, John, and you other holy counsellors of the true Judge, friends of the supreme power, we set out the case, which you know very well, of this poor man and orphan, the human race, who, found a debtor and guilty under his father’s bond, is held bound by the adversary. There is no other way for him to be helped except by your counsel. So whatever seems good to your serenity in this matter for this wretch’s freedom, deign after common deliberation to give a united opinion on his behalf. For this obligation had bound you too, had grace not come to your aid. You who have been set free, set free: bring out the counsel you received from the true Judge, so that he who is held captive may follow it and pass through your defence from evil slavery to true freedom. And this is the voice of all: “Let him do what we did.” What, I pray, is he to do? Let him renounce the devil, his pomps, and his angels: this is that ruinous inheritance which we are compelled to renounce. You see, dearly beloved, what opinion our defenders have given. ### Scripture references - Matt 5:25–26: quotation, high confidence - Ps 10:14–15 (9:35-Ps Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Col 2:14: allusion, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The Psalm is cited by Migne “according to the Hebrews” (Vulgate Ps 9:35–36). The printed “Quod fuimus faciat” (“let him do what we were”) is translated by sense as “what we did”. ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 3 (PL 42:1119; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/3). ## Chapter 4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/1/#p-4 - Source: PL 42:1119 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: At the judgment the devil will claim as his own any baptized person who after renouncing him went back to the circus, theater, and amphitheater, so the candidates must keep their profession. ### Latin text Vigilet itaque unusquisque, ne non ex toto renuntians post professionem, apud eum diabolus suos pannos recognoscat: et incipiat reus semper detineri, quem Christus voluit sua gratia liberare. Nec sibi blandiantur, qui post gratiam acceptam corrigi nolunt, atque rursus ad illas suas pristinas redeunt voluptates. Exspectatur enim dies judicii, aderit ille æquissimus judex, qui nullius potentis personam accipiet, cujus palatium auro argentove nemo corrumpet. Astabunt omnes animæ, ut referat unaquæque secundum ea quæ per corpus gessit, sive bonum, sive malum (II Cor v, 10). Præsto enim erit et adversarius diabolus; recitabuntur verba professionis nostræ. Etsi talis inventus fuerit quisque, ut debitor ex hac vita migret; exsultabit ille adversarius in conspectu severissimi judicis, superiorem se esse clamans, agens talem causam apud talem judicem: Æquissime, inquit, judex justo, judica:Justitia et judicium præparatio sedis tuæ (Psal. LXXXVIII, 15). Judica meum esse, qui tuus esse noluit: meus est, mecum damnandus est. Post renuntiationem utquid invasit pannos meos? Quid apud eum impudicitia faciebat, cui ipse renuntiaverat? Quid intemperantia, quid avaritia, quid ira, quid superbia, quid cætera mea? Postremo, æquissime: fugientem a me, confugientem ad te, postea cum meis quibus renuntiaverat apprehendi, invasorem detinui: in ipsa quodam modo mea possessione a me apprehensus est. Quid enim in circo faciebat, atque ibi furias, lites, insanas voces, inanesque victorias, cum jam a se alienas sibimet dividebat? Quid in theatro faciebat renuntiator turpium voluptatum? Quid in amphitheatro crudelitates suis oculis intuendo? Thesaurizavit sibi iram in die iræ (Rom. II, 5). Hæc omnia mea post renuntiationem invasit, meus esse voluit, et mea concupivit. Judica, judex æquissime: quoniam quem tu dignatus es tanto pretio liberare, ipse mihi se postmodum Voluit obligare. Poterit, dilectissimi, os aperire is qui post professionem suam talis invenitur, ut juste diabolo addicatur? Videte quid agatis, filii mei, fratres mei; videte quid agatis, quomodo hanc professionem vestram custodiatis. Contestamur vos per ipsum judicem omnesque potestates cœlestes, quæ et nos audiunt admonentes, et vos excipiunt profitentes, ne in vacuum gratiam Dei accipiatis (II Cor. VI, 1), sed corde integro, tota virtute, perfecta fide renuntiantes atque spernentes tam damnosam diabolicam hæreditatem, ne pupilli vel pauperes remaneatis. ### English translation (Claude) Let each one keep watch, then, lest, if he has not renounced wholly after his profession, the devil recognize his own rags on him, and he who Christ willed to free by his grace begin to be held guilty for ever. Let those not flatter themselves who after receiving grace refuse to be corrected and go back again to their former pleasures. For the day of judgment is awaited; that most just judge will be present, who will show favor to no powerful person, and whose palace no one will corrupt with gold or silver. All souls will stand there, that each may receive according to what it did through the body, whether good or evil. The adversary the devil will also be present; the words of our profession will be read out. And if anyone is found such that he leaves this life a debtor, that adversary will exult in the sight of the most severe judge, crying that he has won, and pleading such a case before such a judge: “Most just judge,” he says, “judge justly: justice and judgment are the preparation of your throne. Judge that he is mine, who refused to be yours: he is mine; he must be condemned with me. After the renunciation, why did he seize my rags? What was unchastity, which he had renounced, doing with him? What intemperance, what avarice, what anger, what pride, what the rest of my things? Lastly, most just one: he fled from me and took refuge with you, and afterwards I caught him with my things which he had renounced; I held him as a trespasser; he was caught by me, as it were, on my own property. For what was he doing in the circus, there taking sides in frenzies, quarrels, mad shouting, and empty victories, things he had already put away from himself? What was the renouncer of shameful pleasures doing in the theater? What in the amphitheater, gazing with his eyes on cruelties? He has stored up wrath for himself on the day of wrath. All these things of mine he seized after the renunciation; he chose to be mine, and he coveted what is mine. Judge, most just judge: for he whom you deigned to free at so great a price afterwards chose to bind himself to me.” Will he who is found such after his profession, dearly beloved, be able to open his mouth, when he is justly handed over to the devil? See what you are doing, my sons, my brothers; see what you are doing, how you keep this profession of yours. We adjure you by the Judge himself and by all the heavenly powers, which both hear us admonishing you and receive you as you profess, not to receive the grace of God in vain, but to renounce and spurn so ruinous an inheritance of the devil with a whole heart, with all your strength, and with perfect faith, so that you do not remain orphans or poor. ### Scripture references - 2 Cor 5:10: quotation, high confidence - Ps 89:14 (88:15 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Rom 2:5: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 6:1: quotation, high confidence - Rom 2:11: echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - The printed “ut juste diabolo addicatur” is translated by sense (“when he is justly handed over”). ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 4 (PL 42:1119; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/4). ## Chapter 5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/1/#p-5 - Source: PL 42:1119 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: God the almighty Father has a Son equal to himself, God from God, day from day, light from light, yet one God, one day, one light. ### Latin text Credite in Deum Patrem omnipotentem. Mutantes Patrem, mutate hæreditatem. Quis est iste Pater omnipotens? Patrem quidem Deum, qui credimus, nostrum atque totius mundi cognoscimus esse per gratiam; sed et proprium ejus Filium quærimus per substantiam: quoniam et antequam ab illo mundus formaretur, Pater erat. Si Pater erat, cujus Pater erat? Erat ei utique Filius ex ipso cum ipso, hoc quod ipse, sed non ipse; quoniam ille Pater, hic Filius: quoniam omnipotens Pater omnipotentem Filium genuit de se, ita æqualem sibi, ut totus maneret in se, et esset Pater Filii, et Filius Patris, Deus ex Deo, dies ex die, lumen ex lumine: nec tamen duo dii, aut duo dies, aut duo luminaria; sed unus Deus, unus dies, unum lumen. Non capis videndo, intellige credendo: munda oculos cordis; imo potius ipsa lux quam desideras videre, mundet cor tuum, ut sit a peccatorum tenebris mundatum: Beati enim mundo corde, quia ipsi Deum videbunt (Matth. v, 8). Ecce extende aciem oculi cordis et vide, aurem cordis accommoda et audi. Pater enim et Filius duo sonant, sed cum ipse Filius dicit, Ego in Patre, et Pater in me est (Joan. xiv, 10), Verbum enim Patris est Filius; Pater autem nunquam fuit sine Verbo, quoniam In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum: hoc erat in principio apud Deum (Id. I, 1); hoc Verbum Filius cum est in Patre, et Pater in Filio suo Verbo suo: non ergo duo dii, sed unus est Deus. Dies ex die, duos videntur significare dies: sed cum ipse Filius in Evangelio dicit Judæis, Abraham pater vester cupivit videre diem meum, et vidit, et lætatus est (Id. VIII, 56); Abraham autem tres videns viros sub quercu Mambre, non tres appellavit dominos, sed unum in omnibus appellavit Dominum, tanquam tres diem unum. Unde ipse Dominus in Evangelio, unum volens intelligi diem Patrem et Filium, Philippo requirenti Patrem tanquam alterum diem, quoniam jam Filium videbat diem, ostendens quo oculo quærere deberet videre Dei unitatem, quia oculum carnis fixerat in humanitatem: Philippe, inquit, qui me vidit, vidit et Patrem; ego enim et Pater non duo dies, sed unus. Si potes capere, cape sempiternum diem. ### English translation (Claude) Believe in God the Father almighty. As you change your father, change your inheritance. Who is this almighty Father? We who believe acknowledge God as Father of ourselves and of the whole world by grace; but we also look for his own Son by substance, for even before the world was formed by him, he was Father. If he was Father, whose Father was he? He surely had a Son, from himself, with himself, what he himself is, but not he himself; for that one is the Father, this one the Son. For the almighty Father begot an almighty Son from himself, so equal to himself that he remained whole in himself, and was Father of the Son, and the Son was Son of the Father: God from God, day from day, light from light; yet not two gods, or two days, or two lights, but one God, one day, one light. If you do not grasp it by seeing, understand it by believing: cleanse the eyes of your heart; or rather, let the very light you long to see cleanse your heart, so that it is cleansed from the darkness of sins: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Look, stretch out the eye of your heart and see; turn the ear of your heart and hear. “Father” and “Son” sound like two; but when the Son himself says, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me,” the Son is the Word of the Father; and the Father was never without the Word, since “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; he was in the beginning with God.” Since this Word, the Son, is in the Father, and the Father in his Son, his Word, there are not two gods, but one God. “Day from day” seems to mean two days; but the Son himself says in the Gospel to the Jews, “Your father Abraham longed to see my day; he saw it and was glad”; and Abraham, seeing three men under the oak of Mamre, did not call them three lords but addressed one Lord in them all, as though the three were one day. Hence the Lord himself in the Gospel, wishing Father and Son to be understood as one day, answered Philip, who asked for the Father as though for another day, since he already saw the Son as day; and he showed with what eye he should seek to see the unity of God, because Philip had fixed the eye of the flesh on the humanity: “Philip,” he says, “whoever has seen me has seen the Father”; for I and the Father are not two days, but one. If you can grasp it, grasp the everlasting day. ### Scripture references - Matt 5:8: quotation, high confidence - John 14:10: quotation, high confidence - John 1:1–2: quotation, high confidence - John 8:56: quotation, high confidence - Gen 18:1–3: allusion, high confidence - John 14:8–9: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The phrase “God from God, day from day, light from light” adapts creedal language; “day from day” is the preacher’s own addition, explained from John 8:56 and Gen 18. The last clause (“for I and the Father are not two days”) is the preacher’s comment, not part of the quotation of John 14:9. ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 5 (PL 42:1119; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/5). ## Chapter 6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/1/#p-6 - Source: PL 42:1119–1121 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: The Son is light from light with the Father, one light, against the Manichaeans and the Arians; if David and Sirach could not comprehend even the soul or the creation, no one can search out God’s Wisdom. ### Latin text Lumen de lumine duo sonare videntur luminaria: sed absit a nobis, ne nos error Manichæorum conprehendat, qui istum solem æstimant esse Christum: sed nos solem justitiæ credimus Verbum Patris, inseparabilem, æqualem, cum Patre manentem, et omnia cum illo disponentem: Patrem per Filium omnia facientem, fabricam mundi per Verbum suum construentem, Filium ad nos venientem, nec Patrem deserentem, semper cum illo, nusquam sine illo; illuminantem. et de se et de illo splendentem, radiantem, coruscantem: non duo luminaria, sed unum lumen. Ego enim, ait, et Pater unum sumus (Id. X, 30). De ipso Verbo unigenito ait propheta David: Semel locutus est Deus, duo hæc audivi (Psal. LXI, 12) Quomodo semel locutus est Deus, et secundo sonuit; nisi quia Verbum intransgressibile procedens de corde Patris, suscepit carnem, ut. esset homo, ex utero matris? Venit, et mansit: ad nos venit, et a Patre non recessit. Ecce per hoc quod semel locutus est Deus, surrexit omnis fabrica nostra: per hoc quod secundo sonuit, factus est pax nostra, ut solveret inimicitias in carne ( Ephes. II, 14). Hoc Verbum, hoc lumen non respiciens Arianus, audet dicere Filium minorem, quem nos confitemur æqualem: insana contumacia vult de Verbo in corde Patris manente disputare, cum semetipsum non valeat intelligere. Insane hæretice, prius redi ad te, considera te totum, si potes comprehendere te: et tunc disputa de illo qui fecit et me et te. Vide quam non altum sapiebat, sed in simplicitate cordis Deum nosse quærebat ille humilis, qui in uno lapide superbam frontem dejecit Goliæ (I Reg. XVII, 49 ). Vide quam non altum sapiebat: consideravit enim quid in se ipso ageretur; consideravit animam suam, inspexit suam fabricam, discussit se intus quid esset, et ex qua parte molem tam pulchram gubernaret, atque in vasculo luteo quai habitaret domina anima, plena tantis thesauris sapientiæ, scientiæ, prudentiæ: ubi illic essent tanta, tam pretiosa, tam grandia: quæ loca anima obtineret, in qua nullus est locus: atque ex uno fonte quomodo procederent singulae virtutes sine diminutione et exeuntis et profundentis. Vidit hæc, consideravit hæc, voluit nec valuit comprehendere, exclamavit Deo dicens: Mirificata est scientia tua ex me; invaluit, et non potero ad illam ( Psal. CXXXVIII, 6). Hoc fuit dicerc, Quando te possum comprehendere tam magnum, qui me ipsum non valeo explicare extremum et parvum? Videte et alium humilem requirentem modulum suæ infirmitatis, et non excedentem, sed ad humilia inclinantem: Arenam, inquit, maris, et pluviæ guttas, et dies sæculi quis dinumeravit? Altitudinem cœli, et latitudinem terrae, et profundum abyssi quis mensus est? Sapientiam Dei præcedentem omnia quis investigavit (Eccli. I, 2, 3)? Ecce propheta dicit, imo ipse Dominus qui loquebatur per prophetam, quod sapientiam Dei nullus investigavit. Christus est enim Dei virtus et Dei sapientia (I Cor. I, 24). Nullus secundum divinitatem potuit investigare Dei sapientiam: quia secundum id quod Filius natus est de Patre sine matre, nativitatem ejus quis enarrabit (Isai. LIII, 8)? ### English translation (Claude) “Light from light” seems to sound like two lights; but far be it from us, lest the error of the Manichaeans take hold of us, who think that this sun is Christ. We believe that the sun of righteousness is the Word of the Father, inseparable, equal, abiding with the Father and ordering all things with him: the Father doing all things through the Son and building the fabric of the world through his Word; the Son coming to us and not deserting the Father, always with him, never without him, illuminating, shining, beaming, and flashing both from himself and from him: not two lights, but one light. For “I and the Father,” he says, “are one.” Of this only-begotten Word the prophet David says: “God has spoken once; these two things I have heard.” How has God spoken once and sounded a second time, unless the Word, proceeding without passing from the Father’s heart, took flesh from his mother’s womb so as to be man? He came, and he remained: he came to us and did not withdraw from the Father. See, through God’s speaking once our whole fabric arose; through his sounding a second time he became our peace, to dissolve the enmity in the flesh. Not regarding this Word, this light, the Arian dares to call the Son less, whom we confess equal: in mad obstinacy he wants to dispute about the Word abiding in the Father’s heart, when he cannot understand himself. Mad heretic, first come back to yourself, consider your whole self, whether you can comprehend yourself; and then dispute about him who made both me and you. See how that humble man did not think lofty thoughts but sought to know God in simplicity of heart, who with one stone brought down the proud brow of Goliath. See how he did not think lofty thoughts: he considered what went on within himself; he considered his soul, examined his own make, searched within what he was, and from what part he governed so beautiful a frame, and how in a vessel of clay the soul dwelt as mistress, full of such treasures of wisdom, knowledge, and prudence; where such great, precious, and grand things were held there; what places the soul occupied, in which there is no place; and how from one fountain the several virtues proceeded without diminishing either what flows out or what pours it forth. He saw these things, he considered these things; he wished to comprehend them and could not; he cried out to God, saying: “Your knowledge is made wonderful beyond me; it is mighty, and I cannot attain to it.” This was to say: When can I comprehend you, so great, when I cannot explain myself, the lowest and small? See also another humble man who looks at the measure of his weakness and does not go beyond it, but bends to lowly things: “The sand of the sea,” he says, “and the drops of rain, and the days of the age, who has numbered? The height of heaven and the breadth of the earth and the depth of the abyss, who has measured? The wisdom of God that goes before all things, who has searched it out?” See, the prophet says, or rather the Lord himself who spoke through the prophet, that no one has searched out the wisdom of God. For Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. No one could search out the wisdom of God according to his divinity; for according to his being born as Son of the Father without a mother, “who shall declare his generation?” ### Scripture references - Mal 4:2: allusion, medium confidence - John 10:30: quotation, high confidence - Ps 62:11 (61:12 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Eph 2:14–16: allusion, high confidence - 1 Sam 17:49: allusion, high confidence - Rom 12:16: echo, low confidence - 2 Cor 4:7: echo, low confidence - Ps 139:6 (138:6 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 1:24: quotation, high confidence - Isa 53:8: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Sir 1:2-3 (Sirach): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Polemic against Manichaeans and Arians: translated as written. “Intransgressibile” (rendered “without passing”) is taken to mean that the Word proceeds without leaving the Father. The “other humble man” is the author of Sirach, whom the preacher calls a prophet. The printed “quai ha - bitaret” is translated by sense (“how … dwelt”). ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 6 (PL 42:1119–1121; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/6). ## Chapter 7 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/1/#p-7 - Source: PL 42:1121 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: The Arian who cannot count the raindrops or his own hairs presumes to dispute about God’s Wisdom and calls the Son less, though even a wise man rejoices to leave a son like himself. ### Latin text Dic mihi, hæretice, qui audes dicere quod minor sit Dei Sapientia: dic mihi, altitudo coeli quanta sit, latitudo terræ, profundum abyssi? Numera si potes pluviæ guttas, arenam maris, et dies sæculi: tuorum etiam numerum capillorum, quoniam omnes capilli capitis vestri numerati sunt ( Matth. x, 30), dcmonstra mihi, atque explica parva ista inferiora, et tunc tibi credam posse te investigare superiora. Sed non potes, non vales. Spiritus Dei te convincit, qui vos hæreticos ante prævidit. Qui enim ista quæ superius diximus, conscripserunt atque senserunt, spiritu agebantur veritatis, non erroris. Tu autem, hæretice, cum hæc non vales explicare, audes de ipsa quæ investigari non potest, Dei Sapientia disputare: et magnus ubi videris, quia disputas nullo altercante tecum, nullo judice præsidente. Et dum suffragatur tempus errori tuo, existimas te aliquid esse, cum nihil sis: et seductus multos seducere concupiscis; aliquos pecunia, aliquos potentia: tales tibi congregas, quos plurimos tecum perdas. Non est hic tibi labor utilis ad salutem, sed potius ad perniciem Talia enim docendo, imo non docendo, sed potius blasphemando, non cuilibet potenti, sed ipsi Deo Patri in ejus Filio facere demonstraris injurias. Major est Pater, minor est Filius: melior est Pater, inferior Filius. Has contumelias nec homo quilibet sapiens libenter accipiat, qui filium meliorem se ipso, aut parem habere contendit. Unde est etiam illud dictum propheticum: Lætatus est pater in filio sapiente, in vita sua vidit, et in obitu ejus non est contristatus. Mortuus enim est pater, et tanquam non est mortuus: similem enim reliquit post se (Eccli. XXX, 5, 4). Ecce propheta dicit sapientem filium hominis esse similem patri; et tu, hæretice, audes dicere ipsam Sapientiam, id est Dei Filium Patri esse dissimilem? Propheta dicit mortuum hominem patrem in eo quod filium similem reliquit, vivere in filio: et tu audes ipsam sempiternam Vitam, quod est Dei Filius, separare ab illo qui nunquam moritur Patre? ### English translation (Claude) Tell me, heretic, you who dare to say that the Wisdom of God is less: tell me how great the height of heaven is, the breadth of the earth, the depth of the abyss. Count, if you can, the drops of rain, the sand of the sea, and the days of the age; show me even the number of your hairs, since “all the hairs of your head are numbered”; explain these small lower things, and then I will believe that you can search out the higher. But you cannot, you are not able. The Spirit of God convicts you, who foresaw you heretics long ago. For those who wrote and understood what we said above were moved by the Spirit of truth, not of error. But you, heretic, though you cannot explain these things, dare to dispute about the very Wisdom of God, which cannot be searched out; and you think yourself great because you dispute with no one arguing against you and no judge presiding. And while the times favor your error, you think yourself something when you are nothing: seduced, you long to seduce many, some by money, some by power; you gather to yourself such people, so as to destroy very many with you. This labor of yours is not useful for salvation but rather for ruin. For by teaching such things, or rather not teaching but blaspheming, you are shown to do injury not to some powerful man but to God the Father himself in his Son. “The Father is greater, the Son is less; the Father is better, the Son inferior.” Not even any wise man would gladly accept such insults, who strives to have a son better than himself or equal. Hence that prophetic saying too: “The father rejoiced in a wise son; he saw it in his life, and at his death he was not grieved. For the father is dead, and it is as though he were not dead; for he has left one like himself behind him.” See, the prophet says that the wise son of a man is like his father; and do you, heretic, dare to say that Wisdom itself, that is, the Son of God, is unlike the Father? The prophet says that a man who dies lives in his son because he left a son like himself; and do you dare to separate eternal Life itself, which is the Son of God, from the Father, who never dies? ### Scripture references - Matt 10:30: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Sir 1:2-3 (Sirach): allusion, high confidence - Sir 30:4-5 (Sirach): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Polemic against Arians: translated as written. The phrase “while the times favor your error” probably refers to Arian (Vandal) rule in Africa. The “prophetic saying” is Sir 30:4–5 (cited by Migne as Eccli. 30:5, 4). ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 7 (PL 42:1121; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/7). ## Chapter 8 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/1/#p-8 - Source: PL 42:1121 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: Christ’s words “The Father is greater than I” refer to his human nature, in which he was less even than the angels, while in the form of God he is equal to the Father. ### Latin text Et quid, inquis, facturus sum? Ipse dixit, Pater major me est ( Joan. xiv, 28). Quia non intelligis, ideo tibi male sonat quod bene dixit. Nam ipse dixit; imo et confirmavit. Prorsus ipse dixit. Pater major me est: ipse Filius dixit. Sed vide quando hoc dixit: in susceptione humanæ naturae positus hoc dixit. Tunc dixit, Pater major me est quando dixit, Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem (Matth. XXVI, 38). Tunc dixit, Pater major me est, quando flevit, quando lassatus est, quando esurivit, quando sitivit. Tunc dixit, Pater major me est, quando eum dicit Scriptum minoratum paulo minus ab Angelis (Psal. VIII, 6). Numquid enim etiam hic insana superbia ita irreverens progreditur vestra, ut Verbum Dei manens apud Patrem, audeat in ipsa illa divinitate dicere Angelis esse minorem? Si non audes, hæretice, hoc dicere, serva hos gradus, et pereat error tuus: Filius apud Patrem, et cum Patre æqualis, quoniam sempiternus cum sempiterno, semper manens cum semper manente: æqualis missus, et veniens: in susceptione hominis minor, non solum Patre, verum etiam Angelis: æqualis in forma Dei, minor in forma servi: aequalis cum Patre creans Angelos; minor Patre homines faciens angelos: æqualis cum Patre novum construens mundum; minor Patre perditum reparans mundum: æqualis cum Patre vitam largiens æternam; minor Patre mortem suscipiens nostram. ### English translation (Claude) “And what,” you say, “am I to do? He himself said, ‘The Father is greater than I.’” Because you do not understand, what he said well sounds ill to you. For he himself said it; indeed he even confirmed it. Certainly he himself said, “The Father is greater than I”: the Son himself said it. But see when he said it: he said it as one who had taken up human nature. He said “The Father is greater than I” then, when he said, “My soul is sorrowful even to death.” He said “The Father is greater than I” then, when he wept, when he was weary, when he hungered, when he thirsted. He said “The Father is greater than I” then, when Scripture says that he was made a little less than the angels. Does your mad pride go so far in irreverence as to dare to say that the Word of God, abiding with the Father, is less than the angels in that very divinity? If you do not dare to say this, heretic, keep these degrees, and let your error perish. The Son with the Father, and equal with the Father, because eternal with the eternal, always abiding with him who always abides: equal when sent and when coming; less, in taking up man, not only than the Father but even than the angels; equal in the form of God, less in the form of a servant; equal with the Father in creating angels, less than the Father in making men angels; equal with the Father in building a new world, less than the Father in restoring the lost world; equal with the Father in granting eternal life, less than the Father in taking up our death. ### Scripture references - John 14:28: quotation, high confidence - Matt 26:38: quotation, high confidence - John 11:35: allusion, medium confidence - John 4:6: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 4:2: allusion, medium confidence - John 19:28: allusion, medium confidence - Ps 8:5 (8:6 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence - Heb 2:9: allusion, medium confidence - Phil 2:6–7: allusion, high confidence - Luke 20:36: echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - Anti-Arian argument: translated as written. Ps 8:6 Vulgate = 8:5 English (cf. Heb 2:7, 9). The pairing “equal in creating angels, less in making men angels” plays on the hope of equality with the angels (Luke 20:36). ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 8 (PL 42:1121; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/8). ## Chapter 9 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/1/#p-9 - Source: PL 42:1121 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: The Son, equal to the Father in divinity, was born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit, a unique miracle in which God and flesh were joined in one Christ. ### Latin text Hunc itaque Filium credimus Dei in susceptione hominis minorem, in divinitate Patri æqualem, factum, sicut Apostolus dicit, ex semine David secundum carnem (Rom. 1, 3). Ex semine enim David virgo Maria, qua de Spiritu sancto concipiente, et in cujus utero Verbum carne suscepta, nobis factus est mediator homo totus et Deus (I Tim. II, 5), Verbum et anima, et caro unus Christus. Hoc quippe nobis etiam ordo hujus sacramenti declarat, quod posteaquam credimus in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, credimus et in Filium ejus Jesum Christum, de Spiritu sancto natum ex virgine Maria. Et hæc nativitas perturbat omnem cogitationem humanam; quoniam virtus est eam operata dIvina. Nam quando admittit ratio nostrae generationis, ut virgo concipiens, virgo post partum permanens, Filius videatur, et integritas inviolata servetur? Hoc non potest implere quilibet homo natus: ille autem potuit, quia non erat solus homo, sed Deus et homo; qui propterea voluit nasci homo, quia perierat omnis homo. Primum itaque miraculum magnum hujus Mediatoris ac singulare fuit, quod sic natus est: ut ille qui veniebat multos docere facere miracula, quæ ipse per se et per illos faciebat, haberet tamen aliquid proprium qui nihil usurpaverat alienum. Solus enim de virgine natus est, quia solus sine amplexu maris et feminæ de Spiritu sancto conceptus est: solus sine corruptione implevit uterum matris, quia solus pro nobis super cœlos ascendit, ut sederet ad dexteram Patris. Acceperunt ab illo discipuli ut facerent multa et magna miracula, et fecerunt: nec tamen quispiam prædicantur aut creditur de virgine natus, aut de Spiritu sancto conceptus, nisi ille unus qui creator temporum inventus in tempore est etiam ipse creatus, suscipiens quam integram formaverat humanam naturam, ut per ipsam quodam modo redemptor nostram repararet ruinam. Et hic Dei Filius, et hominis filius; Dei Filius in corde Patris, hominis filius in utero matris: idem ipse unus Christus, qui processit ex utero virginali tanquam sponsus de thalamo suo (Psal. XVIII, 6). In quo utero spirituales nuptiæ sunt celebratæ, Deusque conjunctus est carni, et caro cohæsit Deo, ut esset unus Christus Deus et homo. ### English translation (Claude) We believe, then, that this Son of God is less in taking up man, equal to the Father in divinity, made, as the Apostle says, of the seed of David according to the flesh. For the virgin Mary was of the seed of David; she conceived by the Holy Spirit, and in her womb, when the Word had taken flesh, he became for us the mediator, wholly man and God: Word and soul and flesh, one Christ. The order of this sacrament makes this plain to us too, for after we believe in God the Father almighty, we believe also in his Son Jesus Christ, born of the Holy Spirit from the virgin Mary. And this birth confounds all human thinking, because it was worked by divine power. For when does the law of our generation allow that a virgin should conceive, should remain a virgin after giving birth, that a Son should be seen and her integrity be kept inviolate? No man born can accomplish this; but he could, because he was not man only, but God and man; and he willed to be born a man for this reason, that every man had perished. So the first great and unique miracle of this Mediator was that he was born so: that he who came to teach many to work miracles, which he worked both by himself and through them, should yet have something of his own, he who had usurped nothing belonging to another. For he alone was born of a virgin, because he alone was conceived by the Holy Spirit without the embrace of man and woman; he alone filled his mother’s womb without corruption, because he alone ascended above the heavens for us, to sit at the right hand of the Father. The disciples received from him the power to work many great miracles, and they worked them; yet none of them is preached or believed to have been born of a virgin or conceived by the Holy Spirit, except that one who, the creator of the times, was found in time and himself created, taking up the human nature which he had formed whole, so that through it he might as redeemer in some manner repair our ruin. And he is both Son of God and son of man: Son of God in the Father’s heart, son of man in his mother’s womb; one and the same Christ, who came forth from the virginal womb like a bridegroom from his chamber. In that womb a spiritual marriage was celebrated: God was joined to flesh, and flesh clung to God, so that there might be one Christ, God and man. ### Scripture references - Rom 1:3: quotation, high confidence - 1 Tim 2:5: allusion, high confidence - Luke 1:35: allusion, high confidence - Ps 19:5 (18:6 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 9 (PL 42:1121; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/9). ## Chapter 10 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/1/#p-10 - Source: PL 42:1121–1134 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: At Christ’s birth angels and a star rejoiced and the Magi adored him, while Herod and the Jewish leaders plotted his death and Herod killed the infants, whom Christ received into eternal life. ### Latin text Hinc ergo procedens velut sponsus de thalamo suo, ad cujus nuptias commota universa exsultare visa est creatura. Namque angelorum chorus ex his nuptiis pacem designat hominibus bonæ voluntatis: quia qui erat Dei Filius, factus est et hominis Filius; suscipiens quod non erat, non amittens quod erat. His nuptiis cœli novam stellam, novum atque splendidum lumen illo ipso sponso in se operante producunt, ut lumen verum sedentibus in umbra mortis nuntiarent natum, et veluti lingua sua laudarent hunc sponsum procedentem, quem sciebant ad hoc suscepisse hominum mortalem, ut faceret immortalem. Ad hunc sponsum Magi ab extremo terræ veniunt, commoniti requirunt, vocati munera offerunt, infantem natum necdum quidem videntes, sed stella indice regem adorare cupientes. Ex his nuptiis regis nati turbatus Herodes, perturbati et Judæi regem totius creaturæ non intelligentes; quærit Herodes quem audit regem natum infantem perdere, ne illo crescente posset regnum amittere; Judæi nolentes habere Dei Filium regem, ubi Christus nasceretur Herodi produnt, atque de unius infantis nece utrorumque voluntas astringitur. Postquam Herodes Judæis narrantibus didicit, ubi Christus occidendus posset inveniri, vocans ad se Magos, tempus ab eis inquisivit stellæ, missisque in Bethlehem ait: Ite, diligenter inquirite de puero, ut et ego veniens adorem eum (Matth. II, 8). O labia dolosa! utquid in corde et corde loqueris mala? Aliud enim habet tua lingua, aliud clamat conscientia. Te ipsum decipis talia cogitando, erras, fallis et falleris. Frustra in malo vigilat falsitas: non a te, sicut decet, inquiritur veritas. Ecce audiunt te Magi, aliud quidem foris dicentem, sed nesciunt te intus aliud cogitantem, et pergunt ita ut ad te amplius non revertantur. Ille enim eos admonebat, qui insipientiam tuam deridens, hoc Magos facere praecepit quod rex jusserat verus, non quod subdole persuaserat falsus. Per aliam, inquit Evangelista, viam regressi sunt in regionem suam (lbid., 12). Verum cum a Magis te delusum sensisses, Herodes, voluisti omnes infantes terræ illius perdere, ut unum quem quærebas posses occidere. Sed ille sponsus noster, qui processit de thalamo suo, ut ex ore infantium et lactentium perficeret laudem, sivit te implere voluntatem tuam, ut ætas quæ lingua propria Christum non poterat confiteri, testimonio mortis suæ confiteretur, et crudelitas immanis demonstraretur tua, et ad nuptias cœlestis sponsi infantium congregaretur turba. Dic, Herodes, si te Christus ideo offendit, quia ejus Magis annuntiantibus audisti regnum; quid te offenderunt hi qui tecum adversus Christum sentiebant principes Judæorum, quorum filios interficiens ipsos magis atrocissima poena in suis filiis afflixisti? Nam Christum minime invenire potuisti. Sed quid tecum diutius agam? Ipsos, ipsos conveniam Judæos, qui dum infantem Christum noluerunt agnoscere, filios suos cum illo compulsi sunt amittere: quos quidem occidit mortique propinavit Herodes vester amicus; sed his mortalitatem æternamque vitam donavit Christus, quem vestrum etiam nunc dicitis inimicum. ### English translation (Claude) From there, then, he came forth like a bridegroom from his chamber, and at his wedding the whole creation was seen to be moved and to exult. For the choir of angels proclaims from this wedding peace to men of good will: because he who was Son of God became also Son of man, taking up what he was not, not losing what he was. For this wedding the heavens, as the bridegroom himself worked in them, brought forth a new star, a new and splendid light, so as to announce the true light to those sitting in the shadow of death, and, as it were with their own tongue, to praise this bridegroom coming forth, whom they knew to have taken up mortal man so as to make him immortal. To this bridegroom the Magi come from the end of the earth; warned, they seek him; called, they offer gifts, not yet seeing the newborn infant, but longing, with the star as guide, to adore the king. At this wedding of the newborn king Herod was troubled, and the Jews were troubled too, not understanding the king of all creation. Herod seeks to destroy the one he hears is born an infant king, lest he lose his kingdom as the child grows; the Jews, unwilling to have the Son of God as king, betray to Herod where Christ was to be born; and the will of both is bound together in the death of one infant. After Herod had learned from the Jews’ account where Christ could be found to be killed, he called the Magi to him, inquired of them the time of the star, and sending them to Bethlehem said: “Go, search diligently for the child, that I too may come and adore him.” O deceitful lips! Why do you speak evil with a double heart? Your tongue has one thing, your conscience cries out another. You deceive yourself in thinking such things; you err, you deceive and are deceived. In vain does falsehood keep watch for evil; the truth is not sought by you as it should be. See, the Magi hear you saying one thing outwardly, but they do not know that you are thinking another within, and they go on so as never to return to you. For he warned them who, mocking your folly, bade the Magi do what the true king had commanded, not what the false king had craftily urged. “By another way,” says the Evangelist, “they returned to their own country.” But when you saw, Herod, that you had been fooled by the Magi, you wanted to destroy all the infants of that land so as to kill the one you were seeking. But our bridegroom, who came forth from his chamber to perfect praise from the mouth of infants and sucklings, let you carry out your will, so that an age which could not confess Christ with its own tongue might confess him by the testimony of its death, and your monstrous cruelty might be shown, and a crowd of infants might be gathered to the wedding of the heavenly bridegroom. Tell us, Herod: if Christ offended you because you heard from the Magi’s announcement of his kingdom, how had these leaders of the Jews offended you, who sided with you against Christ? By killing their sons you afflicted them rather with the most cruel punishment in their sons, for Christ you could not find at all. But why should I deal with you any longer? I will address the Jews themselves, the Jews themselves, who, when they refused to acknowledge the infant Christ, were forced to lose their own sons with him. Herod, your friend, killed them and handed them over to death; but Christ, whom you even now call your enemy, gave them immortality and eternal life. ### Scripture references - Ps 19:5 (18:6 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence - Luke 2:14: allusion, high confidence - Matt 2:2: allusion, high confidence - Isa 9:2: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 2:3–7: allusion, high confidence - Matt 2:8: quotation, high confidence - Ps 12:2 (11:3 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Matt 2:12: quotation, high confidence - Matt 2:16: allusion, high confidence - Ps 8:2 (8:3 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - The sermon turns here to polemic against the Jews: translated as written. The printed “filios suus cum illo” (“their own sons with him”) is taken by sense; Christ was not killed with the infants, and the meaning is “on his account”. ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 10 (PL 42:1121–1134; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/10). ## Chapter 11 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/1/#p-11 - Source: PL 42:1134 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: The preacher summons witnesses from the Jews’ own Law and prophets to Christ, beginning with Isaiah’s virgin and the passage he attributes to Jeremiah on God seen on earth. ### Latin text Vos, inquam, convenio, o Judæi, qui usque in hodiernum diem negatis Filium Dei. Nonne vox vestra illa est, quando eum videbatis miracula facientem, atque tentantes dicebatis, Quousque animas nostras suspendis? Si tu es Christus, dic nobis palam. Ille autem ad considerationem miraculorum vos mittebat dicens, Opera quæ ego facio, ipsa testimonium de me perhibent (Joan. x. 24, 25): ut Christo testimonium dicerent, non verba, sed facta. Vos autem non agnoscentes Salvatorem, qui operabatur salutem in medio terræ vestræ (Psal. LXXIII, 12), adjicientes in malo dixistis, Tu de te ipso testimonium dicis, testimonium tuum non est verum. Sed ad hæc ille quid vobis responderit, advertere noluistis. Nonne scriptum est, inquit, in Lege vestra, quod duorum hominum verum sit testimonium (Joan. VIII, 13, 17)? Prævaricatores Legis, intendite Legem. Testimonium quæritis de Christo: in Lege vestra scriptum est, quod duorum hominum testimonium verum sit ( Deut. XVII, 6; xix, 15); procedant de Lege vestra, non tantum duo, sed etiam plures testes Christi, et convincant auditores Legis, nec factores. Dic, Isaia, testimonium Christo. Ecce, inquit, virgo in utero concipiet et pariet filium, et vocabitis nomen ejus Emmanuel, quod est interpretatum, Nobiscum Deus (Isai. VII, 14). Accedat et alius testis: dic et tu, Jeremia, testimonium Christo. Hic est, inquit, Deus noster, et non æstimabitur alius absque illo, qui invenit omnem viam scientiæ, et dedit eam Jacob puero suo et Israel dilecto suo. Post hæc in terris visus est, et cum hominibus conversatus est (Baruch III, 36-38). Ecce duo testes idonei ex Lege vestra, ex quorum testimonio non sunt compuncta corda vestra. ### English translation (Claude) You, I say, I address, O Jews, who to this day deny the Son of God. Was not yours that voice, when you saw him working miracles and said, testing him, “How long will you keep our souls in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly”? But he sent you to consider the miracles, saying, “The works that I do bear witness about me,” so that not words but deeds might bear witness to Christ. But you, not recognizing the Savior who was working salvation in the midst of your land, added to your evil and said, “You bear witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” But what he answered you to this you refused to heed. “Is it not written,” he says, “in your Law, that the testimony of two men is true?” Transgressors of the Law, attend to the Law. You seek testimony about Christ: in your Law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. Let not two only but many witnesses to Christ come forward from your Law, and convict the hearers of the Law who are not doers. Isaiah, bear witness to Christ. “Behold,” he says, “a virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel,” which is interpreted, “God with us.” Let another witness come forward: you too, Jeremiah, bear witness to Christ. “This is our God,” he says, “and no other shall be reckoned beside him, who found every way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob his servant and Israel his beloved. After this he was seen on earth and lived among men.” See, two competent witnesses from your Law, by whose testimony your hearts have not been pierced. ### Scripture references - John 10:24–25: quotation, high confidence - Ps 74:12 (73:12 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence - John 8:13: quotation, high confidence - John 8:17: quotation, high confidence - Deut 17:6: allusion, high confidence - Deut 19:15: allusion, high confidence - Rom 2:13: echo, medium confidence - Isa 7:14: quotation, high confidence - Matt 1:23: quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Bar 3:36-38 (Baruch): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Anti-Jewish polemic in the form of a summons of witnesses: translated as written. The passage attributed to Jeremiah is Baruch 3:36–38, which Latin writers often cited under Jeremiah’s name. ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 11 (PL 42:1134; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/11). ## Chapter 12 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/1/#p-12 - Source: PL 42:1134 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: Daniel testifies that anointing would cease when the Holy of holies came, and that the stone cut without hands would become a mountain, the Christ whom Peter confessed. ### Latin text Sed alii atque alii ex Lege Christi testes introducantur, ut frontes durissimæ inimicorum conterantur. Veniat et ille Daniel sanctus, juvenis quidem ætate, senior vero scientia ac mansuetudine, convincat omnes falsos testes: sicut convicit seniores impudicos ( Dan. XIII, 47), ita suo testimonio Christi conterat inimicos. Dic, sancte Daniel, dic de Christo quod nosti. Cum venerit, inquit, Sanctus sanctorum, cessabit unctio (Id. IX, 24). Quare illo præsente cui insultantes dicebatis, Tu de te ipse testimonium dicis, testimonium tuum non est verum (Joan. VIII, 13), cessavit unctio vestra, nisi quia ipse est qui venerat Sanctus sanctorum? Si, ut vos dicitis, nondum venit, sed exspectatur ut veniat Sanctus sanctorum, demonstrate unctionem: si autem, quod verum est, cessavit unctio vestra, agnoscite venisse Sanctum sanctorum. Ipse est enim et lapis ille abscissus de monte sine manibus concidentium, id est, Christus natus de virgine sine manibus complectentium: qui tantum crevit, ut mons magnus fieret, et impleret universam faciem terræ (Dan. II, 34, 35). De quo monte dicit propheta. Venite ascendamus in montem Domini (Isai. II, 3). Et de quo David dicit, Mons Dei, mons uber: utquid suspicamini montes incaseatos, montem in quo placuit Deo habitare in ipso (Psal. LXVII, 16, 17)? Cum enim ipse Dominus Christus discipulos suos interrogaret, quem eum dicerent esse homines Filium hominis; responderunt: Alii Eliam, alii Jeremiam, alii Joannem Baptistam, aut unum ex Prophetis (Matth. xvi, 14). Et ille: Utquid suspicamini montes incaseatos, montem in quo placuit Deo habitare in ipso? Hunc agnovit Petrus dicens, Tu es Christus Filius Dei vivi (Ibid., 17). Agnovit montem, et ascendit in montem: testimonium dixit Veritati, et dilectus est a Veritate. Supra petram fundatus est Petrus, ut mortem susciperet illum amando, quem ter negaverat timendo. ### English translation (Claude) But let more and more witnesses to Christ be brought in from the Law, so that the hardest brows of his enemies may be broken. Let that holy Daniel come too, a youth in age but an elder in knowledge and gentleness, and convict all false witnesses: as he convicted the unchaste elders, so let him break the enemies of Christ with his testimony. Speak, holy Daniel, tell what you know of Christ. “When the Holy of holies comes,” he says, “anointing will cease.” Why, once he was present to whom you said insultingly, “You bear witness about yourself; your testimony is not true,” did your anointing cease, unless because he is the one who had come, the Holy of holies? If, as you say, the Holy of holies has not yet come but is awaited, show us the anointing; but if, as is true, your anointing has ceased, acknowledge that the Holy of holies has come. For he is that stone cut from the mountain without the hands of hewers, that is, Christ born of a virgin without the hands of those who embrace; who grew so much that he became a great mountain and filled the whole face of the earth. Of this mountain the prophet says, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.” And of it David says, “The mountain of God, a fertile mountain: why do you suspect curdled mountains, the mountain in which it pleased God to dwell?” For when the Lord Christ himself asked his disciples whom men said that he, the Son of man, was, they answered: “Some Elijah, some Jeremiah, some John the Baptist, or one of the prophets.” And he answered: “Why do you suspect curdled mountains, the mountain in which it pleased God to dwell?” Peter recognized him, saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He recognized the mountain and went up the mountain; he bore witness to the Truth and was loved by the Truth. Peter was founded on the rock, so as to undergo death out of love for him whom he had once denied out of fear. ### Scripture references - Dan 9:24: quotation, high confidence - John 8:13: quotation, high confidence - Dan 2:34–35: allusion, high confidence - Isa 2:3: quotation, high confidence - Ps 68:15–16 (67:16-Ps Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Matt 16:13–14: quotation, high confidence - Matt 16:16: quotation, high confidence - Matt 16:18: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 26:69–75: allusion, medium confidence - John 21:18–19: allusion, medium confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Sus 45-62 (Susanna): allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - The account of Daniel and the elders is Susanna (Dan 13 in the Latin Bible). “Montes incaseatos” (Ps 67:16–17 Vulgate, “curdled mountains”) follows the Old Latin/Vulgate wording; the preacher applies it to the various opinions about Jesus. The words “Why do you suspect …” are the preacher’s application, not a saying of Christ in the Gospel. The claim that the Jewish anointing ceased is the preacher’s polemical argument: translated as written. ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 12 (PL 42:1134; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/12). ## Chapter 13 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/13/#p-13 - Source: PL 42:1134–1123 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: Moses, David, and Habakkuk are called as witnesses: the prophet like Moses, the Lord at God’s right hand, and Christ known “in the midst of two living creatures” at the manger, on the cross, and at the Transfiguration. ### Latin text Dic et tu, Moyses legislator, dux populi Israel, testimonium Christo. Prophetam vobis excitabit Deus de fratribus vestris. Omnis anima quæ non audierit prophetam illum, exterminabitur de populo suo (Deut. XVIII, 15, 19). Prophetam autem dictum Christum. ipsum audi in Evangelio Christum: Non est, inquit, propheta sine honore, nisi in patria sua (Matth. XIII, 57). Accedat etiam David sanctus, testis fidelis, ex cujus semine processit ille, cui Lex et Prophetæ testimonium dicunt; dicat et ipse de Christo: Adorabunt, inquit, eum omnes reges terræ; omnes gentes servient illi (Psal. LXXI, 11). Cui servient? Dic, cui servient? Vis audire cui? Dixit Dominus Domino meo, Sede ad dextram meam, donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum (Psal. CIX, 1). Et expressius atque nominatim: Quare, inquit, tumultuatæ sunt gentes, et populi meditati sunt inania? Astiterunt reges terræ, et principes convenerunt in unum, adversus Dominum et adversus Christum ejus ( Psal. II, 1). Accedat et alius testis, dic et tu Habacuc propheta testimonium Christo. Domine, inquit, audivi auditum tuum, et timui; consideravi opera tua, Deus, et expavi (Habacuc III, 2). Quæ opera Dei iste miratus expavit? Numquid fabricam mundi iste miratus expavit? Absit: sed audi ad quid expavit. In medio, inquit, duum animalium cognosceris. Opera tua Deus. Verbum caro factum est ( Joan. I, 14). In medio duum animalium cognosceris. Quis, quousque descendisti? Expavescere me fecisti: quia Verbum per quod facta sunt omnia, in praesepio jacuisti. Agnovit bos possessorem suum, et asinus præsepe domini sui (Isai. I, 3). In medio duum animalium cognosceris. Quid est, In medio duum animalium cognosceris; nisi aut in medio duorum Testamentorum, aut in medio duorum latronum, aut in medio Moysi et Eliæ cum eo in monte sermocinantium? Ambulavit, inquit, Verbum, et exivit in campos ( Habacuc III, 3). Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis. Hoc et Jeremias ait: Post hæc in terris visus est, et cum hominibus conversatus est (Baruch III, 38). Ecce quomodo conveniunt sibi testes veritatis: ecce quomodo convincunt filios falsitatis. Sufficiunt vobis ista, o Judæi, an adhuc ad vestram confusionem ex Lege et ex gente vestra alios introducemus testes, ut illi testimonium perhibeant, cui perdita mente insultantes dicebatis. Tu de te ipso testimonium perhibes, testimonium tuum non est verum? Quod si velim ex Lege et ex Prophetis omnia quae de Christo dicta sunt colligere, facilius me tempus quam copia deserit. ### English translation (Claude) You too, Moses the lawgiver, leader of the people of Israel, bear witness to Christ. “God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers. Every soul that will not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from his people.” That Christ is called a prophet, hear Christ himself in the Gospel: “A prophet is not without honor,” he says, “except in his own country.” Let holy David also come forward, a faithful witness, from whose seed came forth the one to whom the Law and the Prophets bear witness; let him too speak of Christ. “All the kings of the earth,” he says, “shall adore him; all nations shall serve him.” Whom shall they serve? Tell us, whom shall they serve? Do you want to hear whom? “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.” And more expressly and by name: “Why,” he says, “have the nations raged, and the peoples devised vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.” Let another witness come forward: you too, prophet Habakkuk, bear witness to Christ. “Lord,” he says, “I have heard your report and was afraid; I considered your works, O God, and was terrified.” What works of God did he marvel at and fear? Did he marvel at and fear the fabric of the world? Far from it; but hear at what he was terrified. “In the midst of two living creatures,” he says, “you will be known.” Your works, O God: “the Word became flesh.” “In the midst of two living creatures you will be known.” Who are you, how far have you come down? You have made me tremble, because you, the Word through whom all things were made, lay in a manger. “The ox knew its owner, and the ass its master’s crib.” “In the midst of two living creatures you will be known.” What is “In the midst of two living creatures you will be known,” if not either in the midst of the two Testaments, or in the midst of the two thieves, or in the midst of Moses and Elijah talking with him on the mountain? “The Word walked,” he says, “and went out into the fields.” “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jeremiah too says this: “After this he was seen on earth and lived among men.” See how the witnesses of truth agree with one another; see how they convict the sons of falsehood. Are these enough for you, O Jews, or shall we bring in still more witnesses from the Law and from your own race, to your confusion, so that they bear witness to him to whom you said insultingly, with lost minds, “You bear witness about yourself; your testimony is not true”? If I wished to collect everything said of Christ in the Law and the Prophets, time would fail me sooner than material. ### Scripture references - Deut 18:15: quotation, high confidence - Deut 18:19: quotation, high confidence - Matt 13:57: quotation, high confidence - Ps 72:11 (71:11 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Ps 110:1 (109:1 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Ps 2:1–2: quotation, high confidence - Hab 3:2: quotation, high confidence - John 1:14: quotation, high confidence - John 1:3: allusion, medium confidence - Luke 2:7: allusion, high confidence - Isa 1:3: quotation, high confidence - Luke 23:33: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 17:3: allusion, medium confidence - Hab 3:5: quotation, medium confidence - John 8:13: quotation, high confidence - Heb 11:32: echo, low confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Bar 3:38 (Baruch): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Hab 3:2 and 3:5 are quoted in the Old Latin form that follows the Septuagint (“in the midst of two living creatures you will be known”; “the Word will go out into the fields”), not the Hebrew; Migne’s reference for the second is Hab 3:3. The “Jeremiah” passage is Baruch 3:38. The reading “Quis, quousque descendisti?” is taken as two questions. ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 13 (PL 42:1134–1123; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/13). ## Chapter 14 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/13/#p-14 - Source: PL 42:1123 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: Simeon, Zechariah and Elizabeth, and John the Baptist bear witness to Christ, John even in the womb and at the Jordan. ### Latin text Verumtamen senem illum ex gente vestra natum, sed in errore vestro non relictum, Simeonem sanctum in medium introducam: qui meruit decrepitus teneri in hac luce quousque videret veram lucem. Quem quidem jam ætas compellebat ire: sed exspectabat suscipere, quem sciebat venire. Cum iste senex admonitus esset a sancto Spiritu, quod non ante moreretur quam videret Christum Dei, natumque cognoscens, perrexit ad templum. Ubi vero cum portari matris manibus vidit, et divinam infantiam pia senectus agnovit, tulit infantem in manibus suis. Ille quidem Christum infantem ferebat, sed senem Christus regebat. Regebat qui portabatur, ne ille ante promissum a corpore solveretur. Quid tamen dixerit, quem confessus fuerit, advertite inimici, non Christi, sed vestri. Benedicens Deum exclamavit senex ille, et dixit: Nunc dimittis, Domine, servum tuum secundum verbum tuum in pace; quia viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum (Luc. II, 26-32). Illi etiam parentes Joannis, Zacharias et Elisabeth, juvenes steriles, in senecta fecundi, dicant etiam ipsi testimonium Christo. Dicant de Christo quid sentiant, et testem idoneum Christo nutriant. Aiunt enim suo parvulo nato, Tu puer, propheta Altissimi vocaberis: præibis enim ante faciem Domini parare vias ejus (Id. I, 17). Ipsique matri et virgini Elisabeth ait: Unde mihi hoc, ut veniat mater Domini mei ad me? Ecce enim ut facta est vox salutationis tuæ in auribus meis, exsultavit in gaudio infans in utero meo (Ibid., 43, 44). Intelligens enim Joannes matrem Domini sui venisse ad suam matrem, inter ipsas angustias uteri adhuc positus, motu salutavit, quem voce non poterat. Quid postea ipse Joannes præcursor et amicus, humilis et fidelissimus servus, testis idoneus effectus, tanto major in natis mulierum, quanto existimabatur esse quod non erat? Christum enim eum esse Judæi credebant: sed ille non se esse clamabat, dicens: Quem me suspicamini esse, non sum ego; sed ecce venit post me, de cujus pedibus non sum ego dignus solvere corrigiam calceamenti ejus (Marc. I, 7; Luc. III, 16; Act. XIII, 25). O fidelis testis, et amice veri sponsi, quantum te humiliavisses si ad corrigiam calceamenti ejus solvendam dignum te esse dixisses? Sed dum ad hoc non te dignum dicis, Judæis falsis testibus contradicis. Et hæc a te dicta sunt antequam Christum videres: qui cum ad te ipse venit excelsus humilis implendae dispensationis suae gratia ut a te baptizaretur qui nullum habebat omnino peccatum, quid responderis, quem cognoveris, quale testimonium protuleris, audiant inimici qui audire nolunt: Ecce; inquit, Agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit peccatum mundi (Joan. I, 29, 36). Et adjecit: Tu ad me venis baptizari; ego a te debeo baptizari (Matth. III, 14). Agnovit servus Dominum: agnovit peccati originalis vinculis obligatus ab omni nexu peccati liberum: agnovit præco judicem, agnovit creatura Creatorem, agnovit paranymphos sponsum. Nam et hæc vox Joannis est: Qui habet sponsam, sponsus est. Amicus autem sponsi stat et audit eum, et gaudio gaudet propter vocem sponsi (Joan. III, 29). ### English translation (Claude) Yet I will bring forward that old man born of your race, but not left in your error, holy Simeon, who was found worthy to be kept in this light in his extreme old age until he should see the true light. His age was already compelling him to go, but he was waiting to receive the one he knew was coming. Since this old man had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he saw the Christ of God, he recognized that he was born and went to the temple. And when he saw him carried in his mother’s hands, and devout old age recognized the divine infancy, he took the infant in his hands. He was carrying the infant Christ, but Christ was guiding the old man: he who was carried guided him, so that he would not be released from the body before the promise. Yet what he said, whom he confessed, take heed, you enemies not of Christ but of yourselves. Blessing God, that old man cried out and said: “Now you let your servant depart, Lord, according to your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation.” Let the parents of John also, Zechariah and Elizabeth, barren in youth, fruitful in old age, themselves bear witness to Christ. Let them say what they think of Christ, and let them rear a competent witness for Christ. For they say to their little newborn son, “You, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High; for you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways.” And Elizabeth says to the mother and virgin herself: “Why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” For John, understanding that his Lord’s mother had come to his own mother, while still in the narrow confines of the womb, greeted by movement the one he could not greet by voice. What afterwards of John himself, the forerunner and friend, the humble and most faithful servant, made a competent witness, the greater among those born of women in that he was thought to be what he was not? For the Jews believed that he was the Christ; but he cried out that he was not, saying: “I am not the one you suppose me to be; but behold, one comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” O faithful witness and friend of the true bridegroom, how much you would have humbled yourself if you had said you were worthy to untie the strap of his sandal! But in saying you are not worthy even of this, you contradict the Jews, the false witnesses. And you said these things before you saw Christ. When he himself, the exalted one, came to you humbly, for the sake of fulfilling his dispensation, to be baptized by you, he who had no sin at all, let the enemies who do not want to hear it hear what you answered, whom you recognized, what testimony you gave: “Behold,” he says, “the Lamb of God; behold him who takes away the sin of the world.” And he added: “You come to me to be baptized; I ought to be baptized by you.” The servant recognized the Lord; he who was bound by the chains of original sin recognized the one free of every bond of sin; the herald recognized the judge, the creature the Creator, the groomsman the bridegroom. For this too is John’s voice: “He who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him, and rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice.” ### Scripture references - Luke 2:25–32: quotation, high confidence - Luke 1:76: quotation, high confidence - Luke 1:43–44: quotation, high confidence - Matt 11:11: allusion, medium confidence - Luke 3:15: allusion, medium confidence - Acts 13:25: quotation, high confidence - Mark 1:7: quotation, high confidence - John 1:29: quotation, high confidence - Matt 3:14: quotation, high confidence - John 3:29: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - John’s words in Matt 3:14 are reversed in the printed text (“You come to me to be baptized; I ought to be baptized by you”); translated as printed. The saying “I am not the one you suppose” follows Acts 13:25. ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 14 (PL 42:1123; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/14). ## Chapter 15 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/13/#p-15 - Source: PL 42:1123 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: Witnesses from the Gentiles are called: Virgil’s “new offspring sent from heaven” and Nebuchadnezzar, who saw one like the Son of God in the furnace. ### Latin text Sufficiunt vobis ista, o Judaei, sufficiunt vobis tanti testes, testimonia ex Lege vestra, ex gente vestra? An adhuc impudenti animo audebitis dicere, quod alterius gentis vel nationis homines Christo deberent testimonium perhibere? Sed si hoc dicitis, respondet quidem ille vobis, Non sum missus, nisi ad oves quæ perierunt domus Israel (Matth. xv, 24). Sed sicut vos in Actibus Apostolorum increpat Paulus, Vobis primum oportuerat annuntiari verbum Dei, sed quia repulistis illud, nec vos dignos vitæ æternæ judicastis, ecce, inquit, convertimur ad Gentes (Act. XIII, 46): demonstremus etiam nos ex Gentibus testimonium Christo fuisse prolatum; quoniam veritas non tacuit clamando etiam per linguas inimicorum suorum. Nonne quando poeta ille facundissimus inter sua carmina, Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto, (Virgil. Eclog. 4, vers. 7.) dicebat, Christo testimonium perhibebat? In dubium hoc veniat, nisi alios ex Gentibus idoneos testes pluraque dicentes in medium introducam. Illum regem qui vestram superbiam captivando perdomuit, Nabuchodonosor, regem scilicet Babylonis non prætermittam. Dic, Nabuchodonosor, quid in fornace, qui tres viros justos injuste immiseras, vidisti; dic, dic quid tibi fuerit revelatum. Nonne, inquit, tres viros misimus in fornacem ligatos? Et aiunt ei: Vere rex. Ecce, inquit, ego video quatuor viros solutos deambulantes in medio ignis, et corruptio nulla est in eis, et aspectus quarti similis est Filio Dei (Dan. III, 91). O alienigena, unde tibi hoc? Quis tibi annuntiavit Filium Dei? quae lex, quis propheta? Nondum quidem mundo nascitur, et similitudo nascentis a te cognoscitur. Unde tibi hoc? Quis tibi istud annuntiavit, nisi quia sic te divinus ignis intus illuminavit, ut cum illic apud te captivi tenerentur inimici Judæi, sic diceres testimonium Filio Dei? ### English translation (Claude) Are these enough for you, O Jews? Are so many witnesses enough for you, testimonies from your Law, from your race? Or will you still, with shameless mind, dare to say that men of another race or nation ought to bear witness to Christ? If you say this, he indeed answers you, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But as Paul rebukes you in the Acts of the Apostles, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you; but since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold,” he says, “we turn to the Gentiles”: let us too show that testimony to Christ was given from the Gentiles as well, since the truth did not keep silent, crying out even through the tongues of its enemies. When that most eloquent poet said among his poems, “Now a new offspring is sent down from high heaven,” was he not bearing witness to Christ? This may be called into doubt, unless I bring forward other competent witnesses from the Gentiles who say more. I will not pass over that king who tamed your pride by taking you captive, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Tell us, Nebuchadnezzar, what you saw in the furnace into which you had unjustly thrown three just men; tell, tell what was revealed to you. “Did we not,” he says, “throw three men bound into the furnace?” And they say to him: “Truly, O king.” “Behold,” he says, “I see four men unbound walking in the midst of the fire, and there is no corruption in them, and the appearance of the fourth is like the Son of God.” O foreigner, how do you know this? Who announced the Son of God to you? What law, what prophet? He is not yet born to the world, and the likeness of the one to be born is recognized by you. How do you know this? Who announced it to you, unless the divine fire so enlightened you within that, while the Jews, his enemies, were held captive there with you, you bore such witness to the Son of God? ### Scripture references - Matt 15:24: quotation, high confidence - Acts 13:46: quotation, high confidence - Dan 3:24–25 (3:91-Dan Vulg.): quotation, high confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Ecl. 4.7 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - The line is Virgil, Eclogue 4.7, which Christian writers often read as a prophecy of Christ. The words of Nebuchadnezzar are Dan 3:91–92 in the Latin Bible (3:24–25 in the English Bible); “corruption” renders “corruptio” (harm). ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 15 (PL 42:1123; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/15). ## Chapter 16 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/13/#p-16 - Source: PL 42:1123–1127 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: The Sibyl is called as a third Gentile witness: her acrostic verses on the judgment spell “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior,” and other verses foretell his passion and resurrection. ### Latin text Sed quia in ore duorum vel trium testium stat omne verbum, sicut ipse Dominus confutans vestram contumaciam, In lege, inquit, vestra scriptum est, quod duorum hominum testimonium verum sit (Deut. XVII, 6; Joan. VIII, 17): etiam ex Gentibus tertius testis introducatur, ut testimonium veritatis omni ex parte roboretur. Quid Sibylla vaticinando etiam de Christo clamaverit, in medium proferamus, ut ex uno lapide utrorumque frontes percutiantur, Judæorum scilicet atque Paganorum, atque suo gladio, sicut Golias (I Reg. XVII, 50), Christi omnes percutiantur inimici: audite quid dixerit: Judicii signum, tellus sudore madescet. E cœlo Rex adveniet per sæcla futurus, Scilicet in carne præsens ut judicet orbem. Unde Deum cernent, incredulus atque fidelis Celsum cum sanctis, ævi jam termino in ipso. Sic animæ cum carne aderunt, quas judicat ipse. Cum jacet incultus densis in vepribus orbis. Rejicient simulacra viri, cunctam quoque gazam Exuret terras ignis, pontumque polumque Inquirens, tetri portas effringet Averni. Sanctorum sed enim cunctæ lux libera carni Tradetur, sontes æterna flamma cremabit. Occultos actus retegens, tunc quisque loquetur Secreta, atque Deus reserabit pectora luci. Tunc erit et luctus, stridebunt dentibus omnes. Eripitur solis jubar, et chorus interit astris. Volvetur cœlum, lunaris splendor obibit. Dejiciet colles, valles extollet ab imo. Non erit in rebus hominum sublime vel altum. Jam æquantur campis montes et caerula ponti. Omnia cessabunt, tellus confracta peribit. Sic pariter fontes torrentur, fluminaque igni. Sed tuba tunc sonitum tristem demittet ab alto orbe gemens facinus miserum variosque labores, Tartareumque chaos monstrabit terra dehiscens Et coram hic Domino reges sistentur ad unum. Decidet e cœlis ignisque et sulphuris amnis. Hæc de Christi nativitate, passione et resurrectione, atque secundo ejus adventu ita dicta sunt, ut si quis in græco capita horum versuum discernere voluerit, inveniat ἰησοῡς Χριστὸς Θεοῡ Υἱὸς Σωτήρ: id est, Jesus Christus Dei Filius Salvator. Quod et in latinum translatis eisdem versibus apparet, præterquam quod græcarum litterarum proprietas non adeo potuit observari. Alios versus Sibyllinos Christi passionem apertius demonstrantes, intentissime audite: In manus iniquas infidelium postea veniet. Dabunt autem Deo alapas manibus incestis. Et impurato ore exspuent venenatos sputus. Dabit vero ad verbera simpliciter sanctum dorsum. Et colaphos accipiens tacebit, ne quis agnoscat Quod Verbum, vel unde venit, ut inferis loquatur. Et corona spinea coronabitur. Ad cibum autem fel, et ad sitim acetum dederunt. Inhospitalitatis hanc monstrabunt mensam. Ipsa enim insipiens tuum Deum non intellexisti, Ludentem mortalium mentibus, sed spinis Coronasti, et horridum fel miscuisti. Templi vero velum scindetur, et die Medio nox erit tenebrosa nimis tribus horis. Et morte morietur, tribusque diebus somno suscepto, Et tunc a mortuis regressus ad lucem veniet. Primus resurrectionis initium revocatus ostendet. ### English translation (Claude) But since “at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word stands,” as the Lord himself, refuting your obstinacy, says, “In your Law it is written that the testimony of two men is true,” let a third witness be brought in from the Gentiles too, so that the testimony of truth may be strengthened on every side. Let us bring forward what the Sibyl, prophesying, cried out about Christ as well, so that with one stone the brows of both may be struck, the Jews’ and the pagans’, and with his own sword, like Goliath, all the enemies of Christ may be struck down. Hear what she said: “Sign of judgment: the earth will be drenched with sweat. From heaven will come the King who will reign through the ages, present, that is, in the flesh, to judge the world. Hence unbeliever and believer will see God exalted with the saints, at the very end of time. So souls will be present with their flesh, whom he himself judges, when the world lies untilled in thick thorn-brakes. Men will cast away their idols and all their treasure; fire will burn up the lands, and, searching sea and sky, will break the gates of grim Avernus. But free light will be given to all the flesh of the saints; the guilty the eternal flame will burn. Uncovering hidden deeds, then each will tell his secrets, and God will open hearts to the light. Then there will be mourning; all will gnash their teeth. The sun’s radiance is snatched away, and the dance of the stars dies. The sky will be rolled up; the moon’s splendor will perish. He will cast down the hills and raise the valleys from the depth. There will be nothing lofty or high in human affairs. Now the mountains are made level with the plains, and the blue of the sea, all things will cease; the earth will perish, broken up. So springs and rivers alike are scorched with fire. But then the trumpet will send a mournful sound from on high over the world, lamenting wretched crime and manifold toils, and the earth, gaping, will show the chaos of Tartarus. And here kings will be set before the Lord, all together. A river of fire and of sulphur will fall from the heavens.” These things were said of Christ’s birth, passion, and resurrection, and of his second coming, in such a way that if anyone will pick out in the Greek the first letters of these verses, he will find “Iēsous Christos Theou Huios Sōtēr,” that is, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.” This appears also in the same verses translated into Latin, except that the property of the Greek letters could not be fully kept. Listen most attentively to other Sibylline verses which show Christ’s passion more openly: “Afterwards he will come into the wicked hands of unbelievers. They will give God blows with unclean hands, and with polluted mouth they will spit poisoned spittle. He will simply give his holy back to the scourges. And receiving the buffets he will be silent, so that no one may know what Word he is, or whence he comes, to speak to those below. And he will be crowned with a crown of thorns. For food they gave gall, and for his thirst vinegar: this table of inhospitality they will show. For you yourself, foolish one, did not understand your God, who played with the minds of mortals, but you crowned him with thorns and mixed bitter gall. The veil of the temple will be torn, and at midday there will be exceedingly dark night for three hours. And he will die in death, taking sleep for three days; and then, returning from the dead, he will come to the light. Called back first, he will show the beginning of the resurrection.” ### Scripture references - Deut 19:15: quotation, high confidence - John 8:17: quotation, high confidence - 1 Sam 17:49–51: allusion, high confidence - Matt 27:30: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 27:29: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 27:34: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 27:51: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 27:45: allusion, medium confidence ### Extrabiblical texts - Sib. Or. 8.217-250 (Sibylline Oracles): quotation, high confidence - Sib. Or. 8.287-320 (Sibylline Oracles): quotation, high confidence - Augustine, Civ. 18.23 (City of God): echo, medium confidence ### Translation notes - The acrostic poem is the Latin version of Sibylline Oracles 8.217–250, the same translation that Augustine quotes in City of God 18.23; the second passage corresponds to Sib. Or. 8.287–320, also in City of God 18.23. The OCR of the verses is badly damaged; it has been corrected by logged corrections where the reading is clear from that standard Latin text. The poem is set out by lines in the translation, though Migne prints it continuously. In the Greek the initial letters spell ΙΗΣΟΥΣ ΧΡΕΙΣΤΟΣ ΘΕΟΥ ΥΙΟΣ ΣΩΤΗΡ (and in the full Greek also ΣΤΑΥΡΟΣ, “cross”); the Latin keeps the acrostic only in part. ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 16 (PL 42:1123–1127; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/16). ## Chapter 17 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/13/#p-17 - Source: PL 42:1127 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: Heaven, sea, earth, and the underworld all bore witness to Christ, and creation itself trembled at his death, yet the Jews who killed him refused to believe. ### Latin text Credo jam vos, o inimici Judæi tantis testibus ita obrutos confutatosque, ut nihil ultra quærere debeatis: qui ipsi veritati nimia insipientia vel potius amentia, cum omnia nossetis quæ de Christo essent dicti atque conscripta, inverecunda fronte dicebatis, Tu de te ipso testimonium dicis, testimonium tuum non est verum (Joan. VIII, 13). Verumtamen ut divinae majestatis veritas lucescat, supra tot testium præclaras voces, suo Creatori universa creatura testimonium se dixisse proclamet. Nonne coelum testimonium dixit, quando novum sidus in nova hominis progenie, velut lingua et digito, quo potuit, natum Deum hominem gentibus demonstravit? Nonne mare testimonium dixit, quando oblitus quodam modo naturæ suæ liquidus humor, soliditate suscepta, sui Domini portavit impressa vestigia: ut impleretur illud quod dictum est, In mari est via tua et semitæ tuæ in aquis multis (Psal. LXXVI, 20)? Quod elementum servum Christi supra se ambulare cupientem, ut demonstraret quantum interesset inter creaturam et Creatorem, labili unda Petrum absorbuisset, nisi Dominus rerum, mergenti Petro manum porrexisset (Matth. XIV, 31). Nonne terra testimonium dixit, quando ejus conspersa saliva, ex ea cæci nati oculos inungens, lumen non videnti restituit (Joan. IX, 7): et fabrica quod minus habuit, ex limo terræ artifex reparavit, qui totum hominem de terra ante formavit (Gen. II, 7)? Nonne inferna Christo testimonium perhibuerunt, quando jure suo perdito, Lazarum quem dissolvendum acceperant, integrum per quatriduum reservarunt, ut incolumem redderent, cum vocem Domini sui jubentis audirent (Joan. XI, 45)? Quid in ipsa ejus passione, nonne contra vestram impudentiam ferocemque amentiam ipsam quodam modo publicam lucem testem citabo? Sicut putabatis, homo tantum a vobis interficiebatur Christus: quod etsi tantum esset, vobis parcere debuistis, ut manus vestras alienas redderetis a sanguine innocentis. Quæ cæcitas infusa est cordibus vestris, ut nec illa vos tanta deterreret medio die solis obscuritas, et inter ejus radios claros amputata lux? Nox recondita in diem: imo nox usurpavit diem, nec cursum sui ordinis natura servavit; sed obtenebratur cœlum, luget terra, velum templi conscinditur, petræ scinduntur, inferna reserantur (Matth. XXVII, 45, 51, 52), omnis pene creatura expavescit mortem Christi. Nec tamen in his tantis aperti sunt oculi cordis vestri. O Judæi, dæmones qui vestra corda possederunt, dixerunt, Scimus qui sis; quid venisti ante tempus perdere nos (Marc. I, 24)? et vos, Tu de te ipso testimonium dicis, testimonium tuum non est verum (Joan. VIII. 13)! ### English translation (Claude) I think that you, enemies, O Jews, are now so overwhelmed and refuted by so many witnesses that you ought to seek nothing further: you who, with excessive folly or rather madness, though you knew everything said and written of Christ, said to the Truth himself with shameless brow, “You bear witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” Yet, that the truth of the divine majesty may shine out, let the whole creation, beyond the illustrious voices of so many witnesses, proclaim that it has borne witness to its Creator. Did not heaven bear witness, when a new star at the new birth of a man showed to the nations, as with tongue and finger, as far as it could, God born as man? Did not the sea bear witness, when its liquid water, as though forgetting its nature, took on solidity and bore the imprinted footsteps of its Lord, so that the saying was fulfilled, “Your way is in the sea, and your paths in many waters”? That element would have swallowed in its slippery wave Christ’s servant Peter, who longed to walk upon it, to show how great a difference there is between the creature and the Creator, had not the Lord of all things stretched out his hand to Peter as he sank. Did not the earth bear witness, when, mixed with his spittle, he anointed from it the eyes of the man born blind and restored light to one who did not see; and he who had formerly formed the whole man from the earth repaired from the mud of the earth what the fabric lacked? Did not the underworld bear witness to Christ, when, its right lost, it kept whole for four days Lazarus, whom it had received to be dissolved, so as to give him back unharmed when it heard the voice of its Lord commanding? What of his passion itself: shall I not call the very light of day, as it were, as a witness against your shamelessness and fierce madness? As you thought, it was only a man whom you were killing in Christ: even if he had been only that, you ought to have spared yourselves, so as to keep your hands clean of innocent blood. What blindness was poured into your hearts, that not even that great darkness of the sun at midday, and the light cut off amid its bright rays, deterred you? Night was hidden in the day; or rather night usurped the day, and nature did not keep the course of its order; but the sky is darkened, the earth mourns, the veil of the temple is torn, the rocks are split, the underworld is opened, almost all creation trembles at the death of Christ. And yet amid all this the eyes of your heart were not opened. O Jews, the demons who possessed your hearts said, “We know who you are; why have you come before the time to destroy us?” and you said, “You bear witness about yourself; your testimony is not true!” ### Scripture references - John 8:13: quotation, high confidence - Matt 2:2: allusion, high confidence - Matt 14:25: allusion, high confidence - Ps 77:19 (76:20 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Matt 14:29–31: allusion, high confidence - John 9:6–7: allusion, high confidence - Gen 2:7: allusion, high confidence - John 11:39–44: allusion, high confidence - Matt 27:24–25: echo, low confidence - Matt 27:45: allusion, high confidence - Matt 27:51–52: allusion, high confidence - Mark 1:24: quotation, high confidence - Matt 8:29: quotation, medium confidence ### Translation notes - Anti-Jewish polemic: translated as written. The demons’ words combine Mark 1:24 with Matt 8:29 (“before the time”). ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 17 (PL 42:1127; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/17). ## Chapter 18 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/13/#p-18 - Source: PL 42:1127–1129 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: The Jews’ malice served salvation, and their dispersion with the prophetic books witnesses to Christ against the pagans; then (chapter 19) the Holy Spirit is confessed equal to Father and Son against the Arians, who rebaptize. ### Latin text Sed non intelligentes actiones vestras, egistis causas nostras. Denique nostræ saluti militavit vestra malitia: ille enim qui ad hoc venerat ut pro nobis moreretur, insanas voces, Crucifige, crucifige (Luc. XXIII, 21), clamantium ut homo non expavit, quia ut Deus eas ante prævidit. Quantum laborastis, ut discipulum Judam pecunia corrumperetis (Matth. XXVI, 15), et a malo venditore mali emptores Christum non possidendum compararetis, nundinas malas agentes animæ vestræ, quando fundebatis pretium salutis nostræ? Quantum laborastis, ut judicem a vestro scelere manus lavantem, calumniis, Caesaris nomine opposito, opprimeretis, ut id impleret quod fieri volebatis (Id. XXVII, 24)? Quantum laborastis, ut Christus occideretur, et latro dimitteretur (Ibid., 20-26)? Quantum laborastis, ut Christus contumelias pateretur, spinis coronaretur (Marc. xv, 17), in ligno suspenderetur, lancea perfoderetur (Joan. xix, 34)? Quantum clamastis, quantum sudastis, quantum laborastis? Sed omnis iste labor vester, fructus est noster. Denique a vobis Christus occiditur, nobis resurgit: a vobis in ligno suspenditur, clavisque confixus in cruce detinetur, et a ducibus nostris discipulis suis in medio eorum clausis januis invenitur (Id. xx, 19). Pecunia milites corrumpendo Christi resurrectionem opprimere voluistis (Matth. xxviii, 12, 13), et ecce ejus resurrectio toto mundo jam celebratur, et quod dedistis, totum perdidistis. Implere non potuistis quod voluistis: audite jam quod audire non vultis. Die tertio a mortuis resurgens, assumptus in cœlum, sedet ad dexteram Patris (Marc. xvi, 19; Luc. xxiv, 51): dispersit vos per universas terras, ut ubique prophetias de ejus nativitate, passione, resurrectione, ascensione, quæcumque dicta sunt, vos perferatis, atque lucernam Legis, tanquam lignea candelabra sensu carentia, gentibus ministretis. Quod propterea factum esse cognoscite, ne gentes hæc omnia quæ aguntur, dum prædicantur, a nobis dicerent fuisse conficta. Hanc etiam ipsam vestram dispersionem fuisse prædictam, David propheta declarat dicens: Ne occideris eos, ne quando obliviscantur legis tuæ, sed disperge eos in virtute tua (Psal. LVIII, 12). Dispersio ergo hæc vestra testimonium perhibet Christo, cui dixistis, Tu de teipso testimonium dicis, testimonium tuum non est verum (Joan. VIII, 13): ut ex vestro testimonio inimicorum, alii inimici confundantur, qui Christum magicis artibus fecisse dicunt quæcumque fecit miracula. Nam et hoc quod mortuus colitur, magicæ potentiæ deputandum esse contendunt. Proferte codices propheticos, o Judaei Christi inimici, ut ex ipsis alii Pagani convincantur inimici. Prophetas longe antequam nasceretur ante se præmisit, qui omnia quæ superius diximus, praedixerunt. Hinc jam judicate qui recta sapitis: numquid si magicis artibus fecit ut coleretur et mortuus, magus erat antequam natus? Confundimini, corrigimini qui talia de Christo vel sentitis, vel creditis, vel dicitis. Confundimini et vos, Judæi, qui lucernam Legis in manibus habentes, aliis lumen præbetis, et vos in eam intendere non curatis, sed exspectatis quidem et vos ut veniat qui venturus est. Et veniet; sed non sicut vultis veniet: veniet excelsus ille qui a vobis interfectus est, nullius criminis reus; manifestus veniet Deus, et videbitis judicantem, quem contempsistis, miracula facientem. Qualis erit tunc vestra conscientia, cum vobis ille nullam jam exhibebit patientiam, quia vos invenit in anima mortuos, qui venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos? Credimus in Spiritum sanctum, quem nos credimus Deum, æqualem Patri et Filio, manentem in Patre et Filio, inseparabilem a Patre et Filio, regnantem cum Patre et Filio. Trinitas una, et tertia in unitate persona Spiritus sanctus, qui operatur omnia in omnibus. Hunc et Ariani blasphemantes, Patre Filioque volunt esse minorem. Nec eorum errorem ille evangelicus revocat timor dicens, Si quis dixerit verbum in Filium hominis, remittetur illi: si quis autem dixerit verbum in Spiritum sanctum, non remittetur illi, nec hic, nec in futuro sæculo (Matth. XII, 32). Quid est, Ariane? sentisne quo progressa fuerit immanitas tua? Dicis verbum in Filium hominis, quia secundum divinitatem Filium Dei asseris esse minorem. Dicis verbum in Spiritum Sanctum, in ipsa illa individua unitate etiam Filio esse minorem. Dicendo tale verbum de Verbo, tale verbum de Spiritu sancto, non remittuntur nec hic nec in futuro sæculo peccata tua, et tu rebaptizando polliceris dimittere aliena? Nos donum Spiritus sancti agnoscimus esse remissionem omnium peccatorum, suffragante nobis ipsa Veritate, quæ post resurrectionem suam ait discipulis suis, Accipite Spiritum sanctum; si cui remiseritis peccata, remittuntur illi (Joan. xx, 22). Vos autem sacrilego ausu, quibus jam Christus dono Spiritus sancti per Baptismum et originalia et propria cuncta demisit omnino peccata, in jam baptizatis exsufflatis Christum, respuitis Spiritum sanctum; et renatum non abluere, sed sordidare; non liberare, sed obligare; non vivificare, sed mortificare contenditis. Nec mirum si has ruinas quotidie fabricatis, qui petram integram Christum in fundamento habere noluistis. A vestro errore separat Veritas filios suos, quos sic fovet ut nutriat, non sicut tu blandiendo decipis ut occidat. ### English translation (Claude) But without understanding your actions you pleaded our cause. In the end your malice served our salvation: for he who had come for this, to die for us, did not as man fear the mad voices of those who shouted, “Crucify, crucify,” because as God he had foreseen them. How hard you labored to corrupt the disciple Judas with money, and from a bad seller, as bad buyers, to purchase Christ, whom you were not to keep, holding a bad market for your soul when you were pouring out the price of our salvation! How hard you labored to overpower with false charges, by setting up Caesar’s name against him, the judge who washed his hands of your crime, so that he would carry out what you wanted done! How hard you labored that Christ should be killed and the robber released! How hard you labored that Christ should suffer insults, be crowned with thorns, be hung on the wood, be pierced with the lance! How much you shouted, how much you sweated, how much you labored! But all that labor of yours is our fruit. In the end Christ is killed by you, and rises for us: by you he is hung on the wood and held fast on the cross, pierced with nails; and by our leaders, his disciples, he is found in their midst behind closed doors. By bribing the soldiers with money you wanted to suppress Christ’s resurrection, and behold, his resurrection is now celebrated in the whole world, and what you gave, you lost entirely. You could not accomplish what you wanted: hear now what you do not want to hear. Rising from the dead on the third day, taken up into heaven, he sits at the right hand of the Father. He has scattered you through all lands, so that everywhere you carry the prophecies of his birth, passion, resurrection, and ascension, whatever was said, and serve the nations with the lamp of the Law, like wooden lampstands without sense. Know that this was done so that the nations would not say that all these things, as they are preached, had been invented by us. That this very dispersion of yours was foretold, the prophet David declares, saying: “Do not kill them, lest they ever forget your law, but scatter them by your power.” This dispersion of yours, then, bears witness to Christ, to whom you said, “You bear witness about yourself; your testimony is not true”: so that by your testimony as enemies other enemies may be confounded, who say that Christ did all the miracles he did by magic arts. For they even maintain that the worship of a dead man must be put down to magic power. Bring out the prophetic books, O Jews, enemies of Christ, so that by them the other enemies, the pagans, may be convicted. He sent before him prophets long before he was born, who foretold everything we have said above. From this judge now, you who think rightly: if by magic arts he brought it about that he is worshiped even though dead, was he a magician before he was born? Be confounded, be corrected, you who feel, or believe, or say such things of Christ. Be confounded, you Jews too, who hold the lamp of the Law in your hands and give light to others, but do not care to look into it yourselves; you too indeed await him who is to come. And he will come; but he will not come as you wish: that exalted one will come, who was killed by you though guilty of no crime; God will come manifest, and you will see as judge the one whom you despised as he worked miracles. What will your conscience be then, when he will show you no more patience, because he finds you dead in soul, he who is to come to judge the living and the dead? [19] We believe in the Holy Spirit, whom we believe to be God, equal to the Father and the Son, abiding in the Father and the Son, inseparable from the Father and the Son, reigning with the Father and the Son: one Trinity, and in the unity the third person, the Holy Spirit, who works all things in all. Him too the Arians blaspheme, wanting him to be less than the Father and the Son. That gospel warning does not call them back from their error, which says, “If anyone speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him; but if anyone speaks a word against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither here nor in the age to come.” What then, Arian? Do you see how far your monstrousness has gone? You speak a word against the Son of man, because you assert that according to his divinity the Son of God is less. You speak a word against the Holy Spirit, saying that in that very undivided unity he is less even than the Son. By speaking such a word about the Word, such a word about the Holy Spirit, your sins are not forgiven, neither here nor in the age to come: and do you, by rebaptizing, promise to forgive the sins of others? We acknowledge that the gift of the Holy Spirit is the forgiveness of all sins, with the support of the Truth himself, who after his resurrection said to his disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven him.” But you, with sacrilegious daring, in those to whom Christ has already, by the gift of the Holy Spirit through baptism, wholly forgiven all sins, both original and their own, in those already baptized you blow out Christ, you spit out the Holy Spirit; and you strive not to wash but to soil the one reborn, not to free but to bind, not to give life but to kill. No wonder you build these ruins daily, who refused to have Christ, the whole rock, as your foundation. The Truth separates his sons from your error, cherishing them so as to nourish them, not, as you do, flattering them so as to kill. ### Scripture references - Luke 23:21: quotation, high confidence - Matt 26:15: allusion, high confidence - John 19:12: allusion, high confidence - Matt 27:24: allusion, high confidence - Matt 27:20–26: allusion, high confidence - Mark 15:17: allusion, high confidence - John 19:34: allusion, high confidence - John 20:19: allusion, high confidence - Matt 28:12–13: allusion, high confidence - Mark 16:19: allusion, high confidence - Ps 59:11 (58:12 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - John 8:13: quotation, high confidence - Eph 2:1: echo, low confidence - 2 Tim 4:1: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Cor 12:6: allusion, medium confidence - Matt 12:32: quotation, high confidence - John 20:22–23: quotation, high confidence - 1 Cor 3:11: echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - This staged section holds Migne’s chapters 18 and 19; the start of chapter 19 is marked [19] and its heading (“Contra Arianos”) removed. Anti-Jewish and anti-Arian polemic: translated as written. The argument that the Jews’ dispersion with their Scriptures attests Christ follows Augustine (e.g. City of God 18.46). “Exsufflatis” refers to the exorcistic blowing in the baptismal rite, which the preacher says the Arians repeat on Catholics they rebaptize. ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 18 (PL 42:1127–1129; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/18). ## Chapter 20 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/13/#p-20 - Source: PL 42:1129 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: True faith and salvation are found only in the Catholic Church; the heretic will rise to damnation, while (chapter 21) the faithful will enter a life of truth, peace, and joy without fear. ### Latin text Apud Catholicam, dilectissimi, noveritis tantum esse veram fidem, germanam pacem, perpetuam salutem. Non enim in angulo est, sed ubique tota est. Si quis ab ea discesserit, atque hæreticorum se errori tradiderit, ut fugitivus servus judicabitur, non ut filius adoptivus: nec ad vitam æternam resurget, sed potius ad damnationem. Quoniam bonis malisque promittitur resurrectio: Omnes quidem resurgemus, ait Apostolus, sed non omnes immutabimur (I Cor. XV, 51). Et quid prodest, fratres mei, resurgere, et non immutari? Qui enim in ista vita non fuerit immutatus, a justo judice invenitur esse damnatus. Damnatus autem æternam non consequitur vitam, qui de adversario diabolo victricem noluit accipere palmam. Quid enim prodest, dilectissimi, quod non illis vinculis in idolorum cultu aliquem diabolus tenet, et visco hæreticorum captum detentumque possidet? Qui vult ad æternam vitam pervenire, contra omnes diaboli laqueos debet fortiter invigilare. Non enim qualis est ista vita, talis erit et illa. Quantum autem distat inter hanc et illam, debet nosse Charitas vestra. Hic falsitas, ibi veritas: hic rturbitio, illic fida possessio: hic pessima amariIt), iilic sempiterna dulcedo: hic periculosa elatio, iic secura exsultatio: hic timetur ne qui erat amiis, efficiatur subito inimicus; illic semper manet nicus, quia nullus illuc admittitur inimicus: hic iudquid est bonuin, timetur ne percat; illic quiduid acceperis, ab illo servabitur qui facit ut nee tu tuscus, et quod acceperis non amittas: hic mors, ibi vita: hic luctus, ibi gaudium: hic omnia quæ creavit Deus, illic ipse pro omnibus et in omnibus, us: et quæ digna dicuntur, si tamen aliqui dicun,r. Non enim sufficit humana lingua laudare, quod nsus mortalium non valet comprehendere. Veniens illuc, fratres mei; et ibi videbimus quod oculus hic ii vidit, ibi audiemus quod auris hic non audivit, i intelligemus quod cur humanum comprehendere t' non valuit (I Cor. II, 9), videntes fruentesque sultabimus inenarrabili gaudio (I Petr. I, 8). Et quale gaudium erit, ubi nullus timor erit? Quale gaudium erit, cum te videris socium, esse Angelorum, participem regni cœlorum, regnare cum Rege, nihil concupiscendo omnia possidere, sine avaritia divitem, sine pecunia administrantem, sine successore judicantem, sine metu Barbarorum regnantem, sine morte in æterna vita viventem? ### English translation (Claude) You should know, dearly beloved, that only in the Catholic Church is there true faith, genuine peace, everlasting salvation. For it is not in a corner, but is whole everywhere. If anyone departs from it and gives himself over to the error of the heretics, he will be judged as a runaway slave, not as an adopted son; and he will not rise to eternal life but rather to damnation. For resurrection is promised to good and bad alike: “We shall all rise,” says the Apostle, “but we shall not all be changed.” And what does it profit, my brothers, to rise and not be changed? For whoever has not been changed in this life is found by the just judge to be condemned. And the condemned man does not attain eternal life, he who refused to take the palm of victory over the adversary the devil. For what does it profit, dearly beloved, that the devil does not hold someone in those chains in the worship of idols, if he holds and possesses him caught and held in the birdlime of the heretics? Whoever wishes to reach eternal life must keep watch bravely against all the devil’s snares. For that life will not be like this one. [21] Your Charity ought to know how far apart this life is from that. Here falsehood, there truth; here disturbance, there sure possession; here the worst bitterness, there everlasting sweetness; here dangerous elation, there secure exultation; here one fears that he who was a friend may suddenly become an enemy, there a friend always remains a friend, because no enemy is admitted there; here whatever is good one fears may perish, there whatever you receive will be kept by him who makes you not to fail and not to lose what you have received; here death, there life; here grief, there joy; here all the things God created, there he himself in place of all and in all things, ... and whatever things are called worthy, if anything can be said at all. For human tongue does not suffice to praise what the mind of mortals cannot comprehend. Let us come there, my brothers; and there we shall see what the eye here has not seen, there we shall hear what the ear here has not heard, there we shall understand what the human heart here could not comprehend; seeing and enjoying, we shall exult with unspeakable joy. And what joy will there be where there will be no fear? What joy will there be when you see yourself a companion of the angels, a sharer in the kingdom of heaven, reigning with the King, possessing all things while desiring nothing, rich without avarice, administering without money, judging without a successor, reigning without fear of the barbarians, living without death in eternal life? ### Scripture references - Acts 26:26: echo, low confidence - 1 Cor 15:51: quotation, high confidence - Ps 124:7: echo, low confidence - 1 Cor 15:28: allusion, medium confidence - 1 Cor 2:9: quotation, high confidence - 1 Pet 1:8: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - This staged section is Migne’s chapter 20 (the staging flag records the printed number XX) and also holds chapter 21, whose start is marked [21]; a renumbering of the section to 20 is proposed. In chapter 21 the left edge of the printed column is lost in the OCR, so the first letters of many lines are missing; the translation follows the evident sense, and one phrase that cannot be recovered (after “in all things”) is shown as “…”. 1 Cor 15:51 is quoted in the Latin form “we shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed”. “Without fear of the barbarians” reflects the Vandal invasion of Africa. ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 20 (PL 42:1129; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/20). ## Chapter 22 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/13/#p-22 - Source: PL 42:1129–1131 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23 Summary: The way to eternal life is the whole Christ, head and body, Christ and the Catholic Church; the Arian church is a harlot posing as the bride, called to return, while the true mother patiently bears her persecution. ### Latin text Sed ut ad ista veniamus, viam tutissimam quæ illuc perducit non dimittamus. Quæ est hæc via? Christus ex toto se, ex capite et ex corpore. Ex capite, æqualis Filius, in manente manens: ex corpore minor, viam istam ut gigas velociter transiens (Psal. XVIII, 6). Caput et corpus, Christus et Ecclesia. Nec ab illo separemur, aliquid aliud de illo, sicut hæretici, credendo; nec ab ista, pravis nostris moribus declinando. Hæc est mater vera, pia mater et casta, intrinsecus sui viri dignitate ornata, non forinsecus mendacio fallente turpiter colorata. Non vos ab ista matre nomen confictum seducat alienum, non vos Ecclesiae species aliena decipiat. Sponsa Christi non est quæ virum suum non cognoscit: turpis est quæ tanti viri speciem suis sermonibus fuscare contendit: frustra sibi Ecclesiæ nomen imponit. Video equidem te, o spelunca subdola, decipiens, quia decepta: video quidem quod aptes formam tuam sub specie aliena. Quid te componis? quid tantum te exornas? quid fimbrias tuas expandis? quid te contra veram sponsam æquare contendis? Non te recipit sponsus, quia non es sponsa. Sed pulchram te esse dicis, et de auro atque ornamentis plurimis gloriaris. Respondet tibi sponsus, respondet tibi speciosus forma præ filiis hominum (Psal. XLIV, 3, 4): Species fornicariæ facta est tibi, irreverens facta es in omnibus. Quod si dixeris, Quare? Respondet, Quia sub specie sponsæ componis te, et mentiris sponsum tuum esse me: Species fornicariæ facta est tibi, irreverens facta es in omnibus. Non sicut Patrem appellasti me: Ego enim et Pater unum sumus (Joan. x, 30). Non sicut Patrem appellasti me, et principem virginitatis tuæ (Jerem. III, 3, 4). Verba sunt Christi per prophetam. Si enim ego essem princeps virginitatis tuæ, servarem integritatem tuam, sicut integram servavi matrem meam. Quia ergo nec principem virginitatis tuæ, nec Patri me agnoscis æqualem, nec ego te agnosco virginem. Noli te amplius jactare esse quod non es: agnosce turpitudinem tuam: Arius abstulit integritatem tuam. Non es igitur sponsa, quia non es integra. Frustra enim illum sponsum vocas, qui non est tuus: turpem enim viduam non accipit Christus. Redi, redi repudiata, redi confusa, redi serpentinis fraudibus violata; redi, non in divinitate cœlesti composita, sed humanis assertionibus circumventa, redi: fallere temetipsam potes, fallere sponsum non potes. Novit enim ille quam quærit, agnoscit ille quam vocat. Semper vivit mater: noverca, quid te supponis? Non potes excludere pulchram dominam, cum sis ipsa turpis ancilla. Species fornicariæ facta est tibi. Non enim servasti uni viro fidem, quæ catholicam non tenes unitatem. Ille enim sponsus matrem quærit veram, quæ pie suos filios nutriat; non turpem, quae alienos fraudulenter occidat. Vide quæ est hæc mater vera, quæ adhuc te tolerat suos filios præfocantem, suo viro injurias irrogantem. Tolerat, quia patientiam exhibet sui sponsi, et exspectat auras libertatis, ut vindicetur ab eo ejus humilitas, quoniam eam viri sui obtinet charitas. Ipse est enim qui vivit et regnat cum Deo Patre et cum Spiritu sancto in sæcula sæculorum. Amen. ### English translation (Claude) But to come to these things, let us not leave the safest way that leads there. What is this way? Christ wholly, as head and as body. As head, the equal Son, abiding in him who abides; as body, less, running swiftly along this way like a giant. Head and body: Christ and the Church. Let us not be separated from him by believing something else of him, as the heretics do, nor from her by turning aside through our bad morals. She is the true mother, the devout and chaste mother, adorned within by the dignity of her husband, not shamefully painted on the outside with deceiving lies. Let no false, alien name lead you away from this mother; let no alien appearance of a church deceive you. She is not Christ’s bride who does not know her husband: she is shameful who strives to darken the beauty of so great a husband with her words; in vain does she give herself the name of Church. I see you indeed, O deceitful cave, deceiving because deceived; I see indeed that you fit your form under another’s appearance. Why do you make yourself up? Why do you adorn yourself so much? Why do you spread out your fringes? Why do you strive to make yourself equal to the true bride? The bridegroom does not receive you, because you are not the bride. But you say that you are beautiful, and you boast of gold and of many ornaments. The bridegroom answers you, he answers you who is fairer in form than the sons of men: “You have taken on the look of a harlot; you have become shameless in all things.” And if you say, “Why?” he answers: “Because you make yourself up in the appearance of the bride and lie that I am your bridegroom. You have taken on the look of a harlot; you have become shameless in all things. You have not called me Father,” for “I and the Father are one.” “You have not called me Father and the prince of your virginity.” These are Christ’s words through the prophet. For if I were the prince of your virginity, I would keep your integrity, as I kept my mother whole. Since, then, you do not acknowledge me as the prince of your virginity nor as equal to the Father, neither do I acknowledge you as a virgin. Do not boast any longer of being what you are not; acknowledge your disgrace: Arius took away your integrity. You are therefore not the bride, because you are not whole. In vain you call him bridegroom who is not yours: for Christ does not take a disgraced widow. Come back, come back, you who are divorced; come back, put to shame; come back, violated by serpent frauds; come back, not dressed in heavenly divinity but trapped by human assertions; come back: you can deceive yourself, you cannot deceive the bridegroom. For he knows whom he seeks; he recognizes whom he calls. The mother lives always: stepmother, why do you put yourself in her place? You cannot shut out the beautiful mistress, since you yourself are a disgraced handmaid. “You have taken on the look of a harlot.” For you have not kept faith with one husband, since you do not hold the Catholic unity. For that bridegroom seeks the true mother, who devoutly nourishes her sons; not the disgraced one, who treacherously kills others’ sons. See who this true mother is, who still bears with you as you smother her sons and heap insults on her husband. She bears with it, because she shows the patience of her bridegroom, and awaits the breezes of freedom, so that her humiliation may be vindicated by him, since she holds her husband’s love. For he it is who lives and reigns with God the Father and with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen. ### Scripture references - Ps 19:5 (18:6 Vulg.): allusion, high confidence - Eph 5:23–32: allusion, medium confidence - Ps 45:2 (44:3 Vulg.): quotation, high confidence - Jer 3:3–4: quotation, high confidence - John 10:30: quotation, high confidence - 2 Cor 11:2: echo, medium confidence - Jer 3:1: echo, low confidence ### Translation notes - This staged section is Migne’s chapter 22 (its heading “De via ad patriam” is partly lost in the OCR); a renumbering to 22 is proposed. Anti-Arian polemic, directed at the Arian (Vandal) church in Africa: translated as written. The repeated “You have taken on the look of a harlot” and “You have not called me Father … and the prince of your virginity” follow the Old Latin of Jer 3:3–4; “spelunca subdola” (“deceitful cave”) is translated as printed; the sense may be corrupt. “Awaits the breezes of freedom” refers to relief from persecution. ### Citation (SBL) Quodvultdeus, Iud. pag. Ar. 22 (PL 42:1129–1131; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/quodvultdeus-contra-iudaeos/22).