Against the Jews

Contents

Reading pages: 1–7 · 8–9 · 10–13 · 14

1. 1After a public debate with a Jewish proselyte, Tertullian sets out in writing that the Gentiles are admitted to God's law, reading the oracle to Rebecca (“the greater will serve the lesser”) of Israel and the church.
2. 2God gave a law to all humanity from the beginning: the command in paradise contained the whole later law, and righteous men before Moses (Abel, Noah, Enoch, Melchizedek, Lot) pleased God without circumcision or the sabbath.
3. 3Circumcision was given as a temporary sign, not for salvation; the prophets foretold a spiritual circumcision of the heart and a new law of peace going out from Zion to the nations, who have become God's people.
4. 4The sabbath too was temporary: the patriarchs did not keep it, Scripture distinguishes a human sabbath from God's eternal one, and Joshua at Jericho and the Maccabees worked and fought on the sabbath.
5. 5Cain's and Abel's offerings prefigure the earthly sacrifices of Israel and the spiritual sacrifices of the church; the prophets foretell that pure sacrifices of praise will be offered to God in every place.
6. 6Since the prophets foretold a new law, circumcision, sacrifice, and sabbath, the question is whether the one who was to bring them has already come.
7. 7The prophesied Christ has already come, for Isaiah's promise that the nations would hear him is fulfilled: his name is believed and reigns among all peoples, far beyond the reach of any earthly empire.
8. 8From Daniel's seventy weeks and a list of rulers the author calculates that Christ was born, suffered, and Jerusalem was destroyed at the times foretold, so that prophecy is now sealed.
9. 9The author argues that Isaiah's prophecies of Emmanuel, of the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria, of the name Jesus, of the rod from Jesse, and of Christ's preaching and miracles were fulfilled in Jesus, read figuratively rather than as warfare.
10. 10Against the objection that one hanged on a tree is cursed, the author argues that Christ's crucifixion was foretold and prefigured in Isaac, Joseph, Moses' outstretched hands, the bronze serpent, the Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos.
11. 11Citing Ezekiel's vision of the sign Tau, Moses' warning of a life “hanging on a tree,” and Daniel's seventy weeks, the author argues that Christ's coming and suffering have sealed and fulfilled prophecy.
12. 12The conversion of the nations fulfils the promise to the Son in Psalm 2 and Isaiah's light to the nations, which fits Christ, not David.
13. 13The author argues that the destruction of Jerusalem, the loss of anointing and temple, the prophecies of the cross (the tree, Isaac, Elisha's axe-head), the resurrection on the third day, and the dispersion of the Jews show that the Christ foretold has already come.
14. 14The author explains Jewish unbelief by Christ's two comings, the first in humility and the second in glory, prefigured in Zechariah's high priest Jesus and the two goats of the Day of Atonement, and concludes that the prophecies have been fulfilled in Christ.