Letter I

I.

THE LADDER OF JACOB the patriarch ¹ was a volume familiar to the Ebionite heretics; ² in which Jacob was introduced [presented], as it were expounding the dream of the ladder, seen by him in his sleep, against the Jews, and the temple, and their sacrifices. Epiphanius, in the first [book] of the Panarion, in the confutation of the Ebionites, is a witness of this thing. There is also carried about, printed in type, THE TESTAMENT OF JACOB the Patriarch, ³ which Gelasius, in the fifteenth distinction, reckons among the books of Apocryphal authority. There is cited by Stratonicus, in the Collectanea, a Title [inscription] written by Jacob the patriarch in Bethel-Luz; ⁴ but whether that title was a writing cut in stone, or a stone erected without any writing for a perpetual memory of the vision seen, is not, in truth, sufficiently manifest. ⁵

JAMES, brother of the Lord according to the flesh, author of that epistle which is numbered among the seven catholic [epistles], left very many writings of great sanctity; among which excels the Gospel, which by some is inscribed [the Gospel] OF JAMES, by some ACCORDING TO the Hebrews ⁶ — of which Origen often makes mention, and to which Jerome, who translated it from Hebrew into Greek, offers an excellent testimony in the Catalog of illustrious writers; concerning which we also have spoken abundantly under the title of the Gospel According to the Hebrews. Athanasius, in the Synopsis, writes that James was the first of all to apply an interpretation and exposition to the Gospel of Matthew, written in Hebrew. There is now extant a certain writing, printed in type by the heretics of our times, ⁷ which is inscribed THE PROTEVANGELIUM OF JAMES, or A Historical Discourse on the Nativity of the Mother of God [Deipara], containing the history of the nativity of Mary up to the coming of the Magi. In which, among other narrations of doubtful faith, this most absurd [thing] also is added: namely, that Joseph and Mary, accused of fornication and sacrilege, were by decree of the priests together compelled to drink the cup of conviction [i.e. the water of jealousy], by which Moses commanded the innocence of a woman suspected of adultery to be tested. There is carried about, and is in use among the Greeks, a Liturgy, or divine Mass, under the name of this Apostle, ⁸ whose beginning is, DEFILED BY THE MULTITUDE OF SINS; which, as a true and genuine writing of James, Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople, acknowledges and receives — [he] who in the synod of Ephesus fought strongly against Nestorius. But the universal council also, surnamed in Trullo, celebrated under Justinian, refutes from this Mass the heretics who used only wine in the mysteries, pronouncing thus in the 32nd canon: FOR both James, brother according to the flesh of Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom first the throne of the Church of Jerusalem was committed, and Basil, Archbishop of Caesarea, whose glory pervaded the whole world of lands, the mystical sacrifice having been handed down to us in writing, set forth [that] the sacred cup — to be performed in the sacred mystery — [be] of water and wine, etc.

THE BOOK OF JANNES AND JAMBRES, Βίβλος Ἰαννῆς καὶ Ἰαμβρῆς, or, as our edition reads, Jamnes and Mambres. From this, Paul in the latter epistle to Timothy took the names of the Magi who contended with Moses in Egypt, ⁹ saying: FOR as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth. Weighing which words, Origen, in the 35th tractate on Matthew, thus says: THAT which Paul says — As Jannes and Mambres resisted Moses — is not found in the public scriptures, but in a secret book, which is entitled above, THE BOOK OF JANNES AND MAMBRES. Whence certain [persons] dared to reject the epistle to Timothy, as having in it the text of some secret [book]; but they could not. For that anyone refuted the first epistle to the Corinthians on this account, as [being] spurious [adulterine], has never come to my ears. Thus Origen — alluding to the verse of Menander, which is read in chapter 15 of the former [epistle] to the Corinthians: ¹⁰ : that is, EVIL COMMUNICATIONS CORRUPT GOOD MANNERS. ¹¹ Numenius of Apamea, a Pythagorean by profession, attests to the authority of this volume, in the third book On the good; where he reports individually the names of the Magi who resisted Moses, in these words: ¹² JANNES and Jambres were Egyptians, men so pre-eminent in the magic arts that they were judged by all the Egyptians alone able to resist Musaeus [= Moses], leader of the Jews, a man most closely joined to God. For they seemed to loose [undo] many calamities which Musaeus brought upon Egypt. These words of Numenius are transcribed by Eusebius out of the ninth [book] of the Evangelical Preparation. Gelasius — as is had in the decrees, distinction fifteen — rejects this book among the Apocrypha ¹³, following, no doubt, the judgment of St. Ambrose; who, in the exposition of these words of Paul, says: THIS example is from the Apocrypha. For Jannes and Jambres were brothers, magicians or sorcerers of the Egyptians, etc.

JASON OF CYRENE, a Jew by nation, a truthful and eloquent writer of histories, wrote in Greek — and with a copious abundance of speech — five books concerning the deeds of the Maccabean princes ¹⁴; which, on account of the exceptional fidelity of the narration, the senate and people of Jerusalem ordered to be reduced into a small epitome, which now is numbered among the other books of divine scripture, and is received with equal veneration with them, and is inscribed THE SECOND [book] OF THE MACCABEES. ¹⁵ In the beginning of which these words are read: THEREFORE we have attempted to abridge in one small volume [the things] comprehended by Jason of Cyrene in five books; and to ourselves indeed, who have undertaken this work for the sake of abridging, we have taken up no easy labor, but rather a business full of watchings and of sweat, etc. Jason flourished under Ptolemy Philometor, the sixth king of Egypt, in the 151st Olympiad — that is, in the year 131 before the birth of Christ.

JASON of Thessalonica ¹⁶ (of whom Paul, to the Romans, makes mention, saying: JASON saluteth you; and of whom also it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, that, when the crowds at Thessalonica stirred up sedition against Paul and Silas, he gave himself up, that he might make for the Apostle the opportunity of fleeing) is said to be the author of that book which is inscribed THE ALTERCATION OF JASON AND PAPISCUS; whose authority, assailed by Celsus the Epicurean philosopher, Origen — defending [it] in the fourth book against the same Celsus — thus says: IF anyone should read through, with a more equitable mind, the writings of Jason and Papiscus, he will assuredly find that this book is not to be derided — in which a Christian is described disputing with a Jew out of the Jewish scriptures, and plainly demonstrating that the prophecies which are extant concerning Christ agree with Jesus himself. Jerome, in the beginning of the Questions on Genesis, says that it is wrongly affirmed in this book that in the exordium of Genesis it is written in Hebrew, IN the Son God created heaven and earth — whereas the Seventy interpreters, and Symmachus, and Theodotion translated In the beginning, and in the Hebrew it is written Bereshith, which all interpret In the beginning, and not In the Son. Dorotheus of Tyre, in the Synopsis, hands down that this Jason was the first bishop of Troas. ¹⁷

IDDO HACHOZEH, עִדּוֹ הַחוֹזֶה — that is, Iddo the Seer, or a prophet full of the Spirit of God — composed Chazoth, that is, Of visions, or divinations, against Jeroboam, king of Israel, one volume; in which he mingled many [things] concerning the affairs done by king Solomon; likewise, concerning those [things] which were done by Rehoboam, king of Jerusalem, both in war and in peace, another volume. To these he also added a מדרש Midrash — that is, Commentaries on the memorable deeds and sayings of Abijah, king of Judah, digested with most accurate diligence. He lived from the times of Solomon even to the times of Asa, king of Judah. These volumes are cited in 2 Paralipomenon, chapters 9, 12, and 13.

JEREMIAH, prophet and priest, ¹⁸ besides those books which now are extant among the Sacred [scriptures] — that is, the book of the Prophecies, the book of Lamentations, and two Epistles to the Hebrews captive in Babylon (of which one is had in Jeremiah chapter 29, the other in Baruch chapter 6) — wrote also other books, cited in the sacred letters, whose inscriptions and arguments are these. ¹⁹

כִּינוֹת KINOTH, or an Epicedion — that is, a Lamentation, or mournful song at the funeral of Josiah, king of Judah, who, fighting against Necho, king of Egypt, wounded by an arrow, perished. The second book of the Chronicles [Annals], chapter 35, makes mention of this song, in these words: ²⁰ AND Josiah died, and was buried in the mausoleum of his fathers; and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned him — Jeremiah most of all; whose lamentations all the singers, men and women, repeat over Josiah even to the present day; and it has prevailed as a law in Israel: Behold, it is written in the lamentations. Jerome, and certain of the Jews — among whom Rabbi Solomon [Rashi] — reckon this lamentation to be the last part of the book of Threni [Lamentations], comprehended under the fourth and last alphabet [acrostic], thinking that what is there written is to be understood of the death of Josiah: THE BREATH of our mouth, Christ the Lord [the Lord’s anointed], is taken in our sins; to whom we said, Under thy shadow we shall live among the nations. ²¹ Which, however, seems to agree rather with king Zedekiah, whom the Chaldeans, bound with chains and having his eyes put out, led into Babylon, immediately after the devastation of the holy city — which [devastation], in the whole meter of that same alphabet, is bewailed together with the captivity of the king and people; and therefore I would hardly believe that this lamentation survives [as one made] over Josiah — although Josephus, in the 11th book of the Antiquities [so; = Antiq. 10], has testified that the Epicedion of Jeremiah upon Josiah existed in his own times.

JEREMIAH also wrote Of the fury and indignation of the Lord against Judah and Jerusalem, one book: in which — Baruch the notary taking [it] down — he foretold the overthrow of the temple, the destruction of the city, the devastation of the kingdom, the captivity of the king and of the whole people, and the other extreme calamities hanging over the Jews, unless they should repent. When the impious king Jehoiakim had begun to read this book, brought to him, execrating the horrible threatenings of the prophecy, he cut it up with a scribe’s knife, and burned it in the little hearth of fire by which he sat through the winter, ²² commanding Jeremiah — [who was] lying hidden in his house — together with Baruch, to be thrust into prison. Hearing which, Jeremiah, God again commanding, rewrote the book by the hands of Baruch, adding besides even much heavier prophecies against the king and his kingdom. Jeremiah makes mention of this volume in chapter 36 of his Prophecy; which Rabbi Solomon thinks to be the book of Threni [Lamentations] — which, when Jeremiah rewrote it [after it had] already been burnt, he increased by a fourth alphabet [acrostic], which he had not placed in the former volume. , at Jeremiah’s command, two books of Purchase and Sale [Buying and Selling], the one open, the other closed and sealed with seals. ²³ For when the King of the Assyrians was now already approaching, about to seize the kingdom of Jerusalem, Hanameel, son of Jeremiah’s uncle, came to him — [Jeremiah] being detained in the Royal prison — offering of his own accord the sale of his field, which he possessed in the village of Anathoth; and although the Prophet recognized that this was being done by the command of God, and although he was a captive, and it might seem laughable in that region to buy fields which he himself believed would soon be laid waste, and constantly foretold [so] — nevertheless, the silver being counted out, he bought the field. And, that all the rights of the purchase and of the transferred possession might be preserved, he ordered the schedules of this contract — or instruments, which the Jews call Books — to be written up by public notaries, with witnesses and seals employed, by the authority of judges. Now in these contracts, as Rabbi Solomon [Rashi] hands down, there were made chiefly two schedules: one, fortified and closed with the seals of the witnesses, which was kept in a most safe place in the public archives of the notaries; the other, copied in good faith after the example of the former, and approved by the vote of the judges, which remained open with the buyer. Both, therefore, Jeremiah ordered to be laid up by Baruch, his scribe, in an earthen jar, that they might be for posterity a monument and testimony of the prophecy by which the Prophet had foretold that the Jews, after the seventieth year of the Babylonian captivity, would migrate back into their own seats, and there again would buy houses, fields, and vineyards. David Kimchi reckons these to have been three books: the first, of the purchase; the second, a copy of the same drawn out in full faith; the third, which contained the mystery and reason of this purchase, which seemed foolish in the eyes of the impious; and [that] these two latter were cast into the jar. Read Jeremiah chapter 32.

He likewise wrote Of the devastation of Babylon one book ²⁴, which — bound to a stone — he commanded, by [the hand of] Seraiah the prince of the prophecy [Vulg. princeps prophetiae; the quartermaster], whom Zedekiah had sent to salute the king of Babylon, to be sunk in the river Euphrates before the Jews, as a presage of the perpetual submersion which hung over the city of Babylon. Concerning the book itself, these [things] are read in Jeremiah, chapter fifty-one: ²⁵ JEREMIAH wrote all the evil that was to come upon Babylon in one book; and he said to Seraiah, When thou shalt come into Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words, thou shalt say, O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place, that thou wouldst destroy it, so that there be none to dwell in it, from man even to beast, and that it be a perpetual solitude. And when thou shalt have finished reading this book, thou shalt bind to it a stone, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates; and thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon be submerged, and shall not rise up from the face of the affliction which I bring upon her, and she shall be dissolved. Thus far the words of Jeremiah, who wished to add this visible sign to his sayings, that the memory of the published prophecy might be more lasting; so that, if the words should fly past [be forgotten], the deed at least, done before [their] eyes, might endure, fixed deep in the minds of the beholders. There still survives a great part of this volume in the same Prophet, chapters 50 and 51, described [written out] by Jeremiah himself.

There are also cited, in 2 Maccabees chapter 2, the Commentaries, or Descriptions, of Jeremiah the Prophet: ²⁶ in which he wrote those [things] which, immediately after the city was over-thrown, came to pass before the captive people was led into Babylon; that is, Of the laws which Jeremiah prescribed to the people who would sojourn in Babylon; Of the perpetual fire, which the priests, taking [it] up from the altar, hid in an unknown well [pit]; Of the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, and the altar of incense, hidden by God’s command in the cave of Mount Nebo; and of other matters which happened at the beginning of the Babylonian transmigration. There are those who reject these commentaries — together with the beginning of the second book of the Maccabees, [which is] taken out of these commentaries — as Apocryphal and of doubtful faith; which [commentaries], nevertheless, Epiphanius, in the life of Jeremiah the Prophet, and very many ecclesiastical fathers, approve.

There is also carried about another volume under the name of Jeremiah, wholly Apocryphal; out of which Origen reckons that prophecy — They weighed out my price at thirty pieces of silver — was taken by Matthew. ²⁷ That the Nazarenes formerly used this, Jerome relates on chapter 27 of Matthew.

JEHU, king of Israel, wrote to the senate of Samaria two letters; by which he commanded to be slain the seventy sons of king Ahab, [who had been] handed over to the education and instruction of the Samaritans. 4 Kings [2 Kings] 10.

JEHU the Prophet, son of Hanani the Prophet (who foretold to Baasha, king of Israel, from the command of God, his own and all his [family’s] final destruction; ²⁸ and after many years rebuked Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, for the alliance entered into with the impious Ahab, king of Israel) ²⁹, wrote a most accurate history of the deeds of the kings of Judah and Israel, who reigned even down to Joram, son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; of which the second book of Paralipomenon makes mention, in these words: ³⁰ NOW the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, the former and the latter, are written in the words of Jehu, son of Hanani, which he digested in the book of the Kings of Israel. And lest to anyone it should perhaps seem impossible that Jehu wrote a history down to Joram, son of king Jehoshaphat — because in the third book of Kings it is read that this Jehu was cut down by Baasha, king of Israel, more than forty years before the death of Jehoshaphat — it must be known that those [things] which are reported concerning the slaying of Jehu in the sixteenth chapter of the third book of Kings in our Vulgate edition are not had in the Hebrew copies; ³¹ in which only these words are read: ³² AND when the word of the Lord had come by the hand of Jehu, son of Hanani the Prophet, against Baasha, and against his house, and against all the evil which he had done before the Lord, to provoke him in the works of his hands, that [his house] might become like the house of Jeroboam: for this cause he slew him. But that which in the Latin edition is straightway added — THAT IS, Jehu, son of Hanani, the Prophet — the Hebrew reading does not have; but it is, unless I am mistaken, a certain little annotation first added in the margin by some uncertain expositor, who wished to illustrate this place [which was] not understood by him; then, as often happens, transferred by the boldness of the copyists into the text.

THE FINGER-WRITTEN SCRIPTURE OF JESUS CHRIST. ³³ Although Christ, our Master, committed nothing by himself to the monuments of letters — inasmuch as he had come to write the law of his love in a more excellent form of writing: not on pages, and dead parchments and books, but on the living and animate tablets of human hearts ³⁴ — yet it is read that he once wrote certain [things] in the ground — on the stone pavement of the temple of Jerusalem — not with a reed [pen], nor with a stylus, but with that very finger with which he had once inscribed the divine precepts on tablets of stone. ^{35 36} The occasion of this writing John reports in the eighth chapter of his Gospel, in these words: ³⁷ THE SCRIBES and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman taken in adultery; and setting her in the midst, they said to him, Master, this woman was just now taken in adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded such to be stoned. But thou, what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might be able to accuse him. But Jesus, bowing himself down, wrote with his finger on the ground. And when they continued asking, he raised himself up, and said to them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her: and again bowing himself, he wrote on the ground. Thus John. ³⁸ But what Christ, bowing himself the first time to the ground, wrote — and what the second time — neither does the evangelist disclose, nor is it easy for anyone to determine. Ambrose, however, in the two epistles to Studius, surmises that Christ, bowing down the first time, traced upon the pavement a certain sentence of Jeremiah — namely, ³⁹ O EARTH, WRITE THESE MEN [as] cast off: that by these words he might show that those tempters were now cast away by God, and reckoned among the reprobate, whose names are written not in heaven, but in earth. But in the second bowing-down, he conjectures that Christ wrote that sentence elsewhere preached by him: ⁴⁰ THE MOTE WHICH IS IN THY BROTHER’S EYE, THOU SEEST; BUT THE BEAM WHICH IS IN THINE OWN EYE, THOU SEEST NOT. Bede thinks that he, once and again, wrote that same sentence which he had then uttered with his mouth — namely, HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN, LET HIM FIRST CAST A STONE AT HER — as if he should say: Let the sinful woman be punished, but not by the transgressors of the law. Haymo reckons that he traced certain marks in the ground, by which each of the accusers beheld with his own eyes his own crimes, and saw [them] set before his mind. Euthymius — who alone of the Greeks expounded the history of the adulterous woman — thinks that nothing was written by Christ, but only that the gesture and action of one writing was feigned by him: which they are wont frequently to do, who are unwilling to answer those who ask importunate and unworthy [things]. For, their machination being known, he pretended to write on the ground, and not to attend to what was being said; so that, while he did not look upon them, they, being more gently rebuked, might blush; and so that, [he being] occupied in writing, it might be permitted them to slip away gradually, before they should be more manifestly condemned. For by his supreme benignity he spared even them. Rabanus says that Christ, by this gesture of writing, wished to signify that those who were accusing the woman were worthy to be written in the earth, together with those of whom Jeremiah says, chapter 17: ⁴¹ O LORD, all they that depart from thee shall be written in the earth. For the impious are not written in heaven with everlasting writing, but in the dust of the pavement; so that quickly the engraving and memory of them, worn away by the feet of those passing by, may vanish.

THE LIVING [ANIMATE] EPISTLE OF JESUS CHRIST. Concerning this, Paul the Apostle thus addresses the Corinthians in the latter epistle to them: ⁴² YE ARE the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, and written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in the fleshly tablets of the heart. By which sentence Paul calls the Corinthians the epistle of Christ — [the same] whom, in the words immediately preceding, he had named his own epistle, saying: ⁴³ YE ARE our epistle, written in our hearts, which is known and read by all [men]. Now Paul calls them both his own and Christ’s epistle, ⁴⁴ because, just as commendatory letters — which are wont to be written for the commendation of someone — manifest in words the virtue and dignity of him for whose sake they are written: so the Corinthians, by the sincerity of [their] faith, and by a truly Evangelical and Christian life, illustrated the glory of Christ, and declared the mastership of Paul, who had instructed them in Christ. And just as, in commendatory letters, those who read them recognize the virtue of those who are commended in them: so those who looked upon the life of the Corinthians straightway recognized the sublime excellence of Christ, whom they professed, and the dignity of the Apostolate of Paul, who had led them to Christ. Now Paul used this metaphor of an epistle, to show that he had no need of commendatory letters — such as the false apostles carried about, whether obtained from others to the Corinthians, or from the Corinthians to others — which he also openly declared, saying: ⁴⁵ DO WE need, as some [do], commendatory letters to you, or from you? — as if he should say: What need of the commendation of letters, where the thing itself commends the man? We care nothing for such letters. For ye are our living epistle and efficacious commendation, who, from the sublimity of your virtue, render the dignity of our ministry commendable to all men. Whatever that is which letters would have done — commending us, and winning reverence for us — this you do, while all both see you and hear of you: for this reason, that the virtue of disciples is wont to adorn the teacher, and to commend [him] more than any epistle could. Ye therefore, he says, are our epistle, written in our hearts; because we always have your piety and charity in [our] mind, bear [it] in [our] heart, everywhere carry [it] about with us, and celebrate your good deeds before all. Ye are likewise not only our epistle, but Christ’s also, since through the holiness of your life ye exhibit Christ, the author of your salvation, to be received by all nations. For then are ye the true and living epistle of Christ — written indeed by him, but by our ministry: written, however, not with deletable ink, such as are [those] which the false apostles bring to you, begged [from others]; nor again inscribed on stone tablets, as [was] that old law concerning which the Jews so greatly glory — but on the fleshly and soft tablets of the heart. For your hearts, on which we have impressed the doctrine of Christ, were to us in place of parchment. Our tongue [was] the pen, but Christ himself, through the Spirit, dictated what we should write in your hearts.

THE EPISTLE OF JESUS CHRIST [in reply] to Abgar, petty king of the Edessenes — ⁴⁶ this Eusebius, in the first book of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 15 [so printed; the Abgar letters are HE 1.13], testifies that he found in the public Archives of the city of Edessa, together with the epistle of Abgar himself, written in Syriac: of which the copies are these:

Abgar, son of Uchania, Toparch, to JESUS the good Saviour, who has appeared in the regions of Jerusalem. Greeting. by me concerning thee, and concerning the healings which thou workest — that these are done by thee without medicines or herbs; and that by a word only thou makest the blind to see, and the lame to walk; and thou cleansest lepers; and unclean spirits and demons thou castest out; and those who are afflicted with long sicknesses, thou curest and healest; the dead also thou raisest up. All which having been heard concerning thee, I resolved in my mind that it is one of two things: either that thou art God, and hast descended from heaven, to do these things; or that thou art the Son of God, who doest these things. Therefore, writing, I would beg thee that thou wouldst deign to weary thyself [in journeying] even to me, and to cure my sickness, with which I have long labored. For I have also learned this, that the Jews murmur against thee, and wish to lay snares for thee. And I have a city, small indeed, but honorable, which may suffice for us both.*

Jesus the Nazarene, to Abgar the Toparch.

BLESSED art thou, because thou hast believed in me, whom thou thyself hast not seen. For it is written of me, that those who see me shall not believe in me; and those who see me not, they shall believe and live. But concerning that which thou hast written to me, that I should come to thee: it behooves me to fulfill here all [the things] for which I was sent; and after I shall have fulfilled [them], to be received up to him who sent me. When therefore I shall have been taken up, I will send to thee one of my disciples, to cure thy sickness, and to give life to thee, and to those who are with thee.

This epistle Pope Gelasius the First rejects among the Apocryphal scriptures. John of Damascus, in the fourth book On the orthodox faith, chapter 17, writes that our Lord Jesus sent to this Abgar — [who was] anxiously begging for it — an image of his own face. ⁴⁷ Evagrius, in the fourth book of the Ecclesiastical History, narrates that the city of Edessa was, by the virtue of this sacred image, wonderfully delivered from the assault of the Persians, and from the burning of the flames stirred up by them. The same is also related in the fifth session of the second Council of Nicaea. Gelasius, in the fifteenth distinction, numbers both letters among the Apocrypha.

THE GENERATION OF JESUS CHRIST, or The Book of the generation of Jesus Christ (which in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew is called ספר תולדות ישוע המשיח Sepher toldoth Yeshua ha-Mashiach — that is, The Book of the generations of Jesus the Messiah), ⁴⁸ gave occasion to the sacred interpreters of inquiring whether this title, The Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, signified the whole work of this gospel, or indicated only this genealogy of the Savior placed at the beginning of the Gospel — after the custom of Moses, who called the genealogy of our first parent The Book of the generation of Adam. ⁴⁹ Chrysostom reckons that Matthew, by this title, did not wish to comprehend the sum of the whole Evangelical History — as many writers are accustomed to comprehend, in their titles, the entire arguments of [their] works — but only the beginning, and the fountain, from which the rest of the evangelical history arises, which takes its beginning from the carnal generation of Christ described in this genealogy. But certain [others] affirm that by this title is comprehended the sum and the universal argument of the whole gospel: that Matthew therefore called [it] The Book of the generation of Jesus Christ because, since he himself was a Hebrew, and wrote in Hebrew for Hebrews, it seemed [good] to him to inscribe his history from the generation of Christ, which he narrated at the beginning of the volume — the custom of the Hebrews being here preserved, who generally impose names on their books from those matters which are related in the openings; ⁵⁰ imitating Moses, who (as Philo the Jew, in the book On the world, is witness) inscribed the first volume of the Pentateuch The Book of Genesis, that is, of generation, because its beginning contained the generation of the world.

But to me it seems that Matthew — not only after the manner of the Hebrews, but also according to the custom of other writers — comprehended by this title not only the carnal generation of Christ, but also his whole life, preaching, miracles, passion, death, resurrection, and all his other deeds and events; ⁵¹ since that word התולדות ha-toldoth — that is, of generations — which is placed in the title, among the Hebrews signifies two [things]: that is, generations and events. ⁵² Whence the Rabbis of the Hebrews, as often as they expound those places of the divine scriptures — THIS IS THE BOOK OF THE GENERATION OF ADAM, and THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF ABRAHAM, and places like these — say: WHERESOEVER thou shalt find the word תולדות toldoth, that is, of generations, that place teaches concerning the births, and the events, and the actions of him of whom mention is there made. The Book of the generations of Jesus Christ, therefore, will be a title comprehending all the operations and events of Christ, from his Incarnation even to the ascension, which are described in this whole gospel. Faustus, bishop of the Manichaeans — as Augustine relates in the books published against him — assailed this title with many and various cavils, ⁵³ asserting that it pertained neither to the whole body of the gospel, nor to any part of it; but that by it was indicated only a certain carnal genealogy of Christ, which he thought ought to be cut off from the whole gospel entirely, as falsely fabricated, and rashly — and by an uncertain author — imposed on the Gospel of Matthew, like a horse’s head set upon a human neck. The insane blasphemies of this [man], in the seventh book of this work, we have most strongly refuted, out of the opinions of Augustine.

THE INFANCY OF JESUS CHRIST, or the book Of the infancy of the Savior. See below, under the entry Matthew.

THE MAGIC OF JESUS CHRIST. ⁵⁴ That many books were published by heretics and impostors under the title of our Saviour Jesus — not only is Jerome a witness, in the thirteenth [book of the] commentary on Ezekiel, but Augustine also affirms, in the first book Of the consensus of the Evangelists, that there were certain pagans in his own times who boasted that they had seen, and read, certain books of Christ [addressed] to Peter and Paul, ⁵⁵ in which was written the sum of the whole art of Magic — out of the skill of which Christ, while he lived, had wrought so many and so great miracles. Whose madness Augustine, in the same place, briefly refutes by four arguments. First, that those who affirm that they have read such books could never — however anxiously they tried — perform such miracles as they say Christ performed out of such books. Secondly, that these [men] so err by divine judgment as to assert that these same books were inscribed [addressed] to Peter and Paul, as with an epistolary title — having perhaps fallen into such an error because in many places they had seen them depicted together with Christ; whereas, however, it is known even to children that Paul, so long as Christ lived in mortal flesh, was neither a disciple nor an intimate of Christ. ⁵⁶ Not, therefore, could [Christ have addressed to Paul] the books which, before [his] death, [they say he] wrote — to write to Paul as [his] most intimate [friend], who only after the ascension of the Lord then first began to be his disciple. Thirdly, that those who think Christ could [do] such great [things] by magic arts, and turned the whole world unto himself alone, do not consider that it could by no means come about, through magic arts, that Christ — before he was born — should fill so many Prophets with the divine Spirit, [Prophets] who foretold that he would do such [things] as we now see present in the world. For even if he had brought [it] about by magic arts that he should be worshipped even [when] dead, yet he could not be a magician before he was born. Fourthly, because they foolishly believe that Christ composed books — [Christ] who never wrote anything, but only left to others [the things] to be written concerning himself, the most excellent sublimity of his own doctrine so requiring: which it did not befit to be written with deletable ink on the perishable leaves of papers, or on tablets void of sense, but rather to be engraved — destined to endure perpetually — on the living and everlasting minds of his disciples, with the pen of the divine Spirit. Whence also, among the pagans, the most noble philosophers Pythagoras and Socrates committed nothing to the monuments of letters, ⁵⁷ thinking that they had found the most perfect manner of teaching, if they should leave the precepts of living well and blessedly not written on pages, but impressed on the minds of their hearers.

THE PRIESTHOOD OF JESUS CHRIST, or A Book concerning the legal priesthood of Jesus Christ. There is extant, in the Greek Lexicon of Suidas, under the entry JESUS, a certain little book inserted entire, Of the legal priesthood of Jesus Christ, found in the Archives of the city of Tiberias in the time of the Emperor Justinian, by Theodosius, a chief [prince] of the Jews, and by Philip Argentarius, a Christian: in which it is diffusely narrated that Christ — both on account of the sanctity of his life, and on account of the nobility of his race, deduced from the two tribes of Judah and Levi mutually intermingled — was judged by all the Levites worthy of the honor of the Mosaic priesthood, and thus at last received by the priests into the college of priests. ⁵⁸ There is added, moreover, at the end of the book an Apology, which defends the authority of the same little book, and shows that Christ discharged the legal priesthood — both from the testimony of Josephus, and from various places of both Testaments. Hieronymus Hentenius wrote a refutation of this book — which in recent years had been printed three times, with great applause of readers, at Paris and Basel — and Pope Paul IV commanded [it] to be placed in the Index of condemned volumes.

JEZEBEL, ^{59 60} wife of Ahab king of Israel, when she had noticed that her husband vehemently desired the estate of Naboth the Israelite, adjoining the royal grounds, and that it could not be obtained from Naboth either by price or by entreaties, wrote secret letters to the chief men of Israel; by which she commanded that, a fast being proclaimed, they should call an assembly, and in it should assign the first place to Naboth on account of [his] illustrious birth; then, three men being suborned [who would] dare anything, they should — [Naboth] being convicted by the testimony of these of blasphemy against God and the king — cast him to the people to be stoned, and in this manner take him out of the way. Naboth, therefore, in this manner, against right and divine law, being overwhelmed with stones, Jezebel handed over the estate of the slain [man] to her husband to possess. For which so impious crime she herself, not long after, was slain, and devoured by dogs in that place where the dogs had consumed the corpse of Naboth. ⁶¹ See the third book of Kings, chapter 21.

Now thou shalt note, in these letters of Jezebel, that the word HE BLESSED GOD AND THE KING ⁶² is to be understood in a contrary sense for He cursed — just as also those execrable words of Job’s wife, BLESS GOD, AND DIE, ⁶³ that is, Curse [him]; and likewise that [word] of Job himself, saying, LEST perchance my sons have sinned, blessing God in their hearts; ⁶⁴ and that [word] of Satan to God concerning Job, UNLESS he shall have blessed thee to [thy] face. ⁶⁵ For the word Bless among the Hebrews is of the number of those expressions which are taken as much in a good as in a bad sense ⁶⁶ — just as, among the Greeks, Anathema, which signifies both a votive offering hung up to God in the temple, and utmost detestation. And among the Latins, Sacer and Sacrum are sometimes taken in a bad sense, ⁶⁷ for [something] execrable and detestable: according to which signification Virgil said:

—To what dost thou not drive mortal breasts, O accursed hunger for gold?

Juvenal: Let him be intestable, and accursed [sacer]. There are also those who say that the name of cursing and blasphemy was so hateful to the Jews that, not daring to express it by its proper word, they signified it by the contrary word of blessing.

THE INSCRIPTION OF THE RIDER, sitting on a white horse, is twofold: the one visible, traced on the garment, upon the thigh of the one sitting; the other incomprehensible, which no one knows but the Rider himself. Of which John, in the Apocalypse, makes mention in these words: ⁶⁸ BEHOLD a white horse, and he that sat upon him [was] faithful and true, having a name written, which no one knoweth but himself: and he was clothed with a garment dipped in blood: and his name is called ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ, that is, The Word of God: and he hath upon his garment, and upon his thigh, a name written, Βασιλεὺς βασιλέων, καὶ κύριος κυρίων, that is, King of kings, and Lord of lords. These [things] John [says] concerning the twin inscription of the Rider: of which, the [one] which is visible, imprinted on the thigh, is expounded thus, according to the interpretation of Arethas of Caesarea. ⁶⁹ The garment indeed signifies the flesh of Christ; but the thigh, the nature of the flesh — that it is truly human, and not phantastic. For to signify this, thigh is taken in the divine scripture. The aim of the passage, therefore, is to signify by this, that although the Word is hypostatically united to the human nature, and truly took human flesh of the Virgin, nevertheless he is omnipotent — as being the king of things heavenly, and lord of things earthly and subterranean — which omnipotence of empire, communicated to the humanity of the Son of God, Paul, wishing to express in the epistle to the Philippians, said: ⁷⁰ WHEREFORE God hath exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that in the name of JESUS every knee should bow, of things heavenly, earthly, and infernal.

THE OTHER, invisible inscription ⁷¹ — containing the name which no one knows except himself — signifies the incomprehensibility of the infinite, and therefore unknowable and ineffable, substance of the Son of God; concerning which Solomon says: ⁷² WHAT is his name, and the name of his son, if thou knowest? For although, from various likenesses of creatures, we beg [borrow] certain appellations, by which we may name God — inasmuch as we know him through a glass, and in an enigma [darkly] — whether by affirmative names, such as are wise, good, Sun, light, life, king, lord; or by negatives, as are invisible, immutable, incorporeal: yet the essence itself, as it is in itself, can neither be explained by words, nor expressed by writings, nor comprehended by any thought. For he alone, who is infinite, and comprehends Himself alone, has reserved to himself the knowledge of this unknowable name of his — that is, of his essence, which is signified by the unknowable name — revealing to no one its incomprehensible immensity; as he himself testified to Moses, saying: ⁷³ I [am] the Lord, who appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in God Almighty, and my name יהוה JEHOVAH I did not make known to them. Now this name is said to have been revealed to no one ⁷⁴ — not because the word Jehovah itself is either unknown, or cannot be expressed by the tongue (since it is both written with definite letters, and was uttered by Pharaoh, a most impure man); but because the nature of God, especially [as] signified by that name, cannot be expressed by any creature, since it is infinite; and therefore can, by no one, distinctly, openly, and exactly, be known and named. There are those who think that in this place, by the name which no one knows but himself, is to be understood this name Jehovah, because of the likeness of signification which it has with the epithets that John attributes to him who sits upon the horse, calling him faithful and true: ⁷⁵ for he is called faithful and true, who persists in [his] purpose, keeps [his] promises, and fulfills his pledges by deed. Which signification indeed the word Jehovah itself retains, deduced from the root היה haia, ⁷⁶ which signifies He was, and He made to be. Whence Jehovah signifies him who is, and makes something to be. According to which sense God said to Moses: MY name Jehovah I did not make known to them — that is, I have not yet revealed myself through the fulfillment of those things which I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but now I will reveal myself by the name Jehovah — that is, by the present and manifest fulfillment of my promises; and according to the signification of my name Jehovah, I will make to be what I promised. Now I promised that I would give the land of Canaan to the sons of Israel: soon presenting this, I will manifest the name Jehovah, now making those [things] to be which I, truthful and faithful, promised. Thou hast [more] on this matter below, in [the entry] The inscription of the Pontifical vestment, letter P; and in the third book, in the Elementary Exposition.

THE ROLLED-UP BOOK [SCROLL], in Greek βιβλίον εἱλισσόμενον — that is, a book which is rolled, or that may be rolled together — is mentioned in the Apocalypse, chapter six; where John, foretelling the final destruction of the whole world, says: ⁷⁷ THE SUN became black, as a sackcloth of hair; and the whole Moon became as blood; and the stars from heaven fell upon the earth, as a fig tree casteth its green figs when it is shaken by a great wind; and the heaven departed as a book rolled up. And Isaiah, treating the same subject in almost the same words, thus writes concerning this book: ⁷⁸ ALL the host of the heavens shall waste away, and the heavens shall be folded together as a book, and all their host shall fall down, as the leaves fall from the vine and from the fig tree. Obscure, indeed, is this Hebraic metaphor of the book, and unaccustomed and harsh to Greek as well as to Latin ears. Therefore it must be known that among the Hebrews, by ancient custom, the books — especially the sacred [ones] — are of another form than our books, which are compacted of many leaves. ⁷⁹ For they have only one leaf, or an oblong membrane [parchment], which around a cylinder, or wooden axle, is turned about, in the manner of a warp of cloth rolled about a weaver’s beam. Now books of this kind seem to bear a certain image of the heavens: ⁸⁰ because, just as that wooden axle, which is in the middle of the volume, the several membranes of it — whether orbs, or spirals — surround and enclose, one above another: so this earth, which holds the axle [center] of the whole universe, several heavenly orbs, placed one above another, encircle in orbicular fashion, and enclose.

But in what manner, and for what cause, the heaven is — on the supreme day of the age — to be folded up like a book (according to Isaiah), or to depart like a book (according to John), there is a twofold opinion of the fathers: ⁸¹ both, as I judge, arisen from the ambiguity of the Hebrew word נגול nagol; which, in this place of Isaiah, is doubtful, signifying as much to roll around as to unroll — or, as much to fold up as to unfold. Those, therefore, who take this word נגול nagol in the sense of unrolling and unfolding, read this place thus: The heavens shall be unfolded like a book. And they assert that the heaven, which is now wrapped up, is to be unrolled and opened at the end of the world, that all the rewards of that consummated glory may be manifested to us, which now are removed from our eyes. So also Arethas, bishop of Caesarea, expounded this place in [his] commentaries on the Apocalypse, saying: ⁸² WE JUDGE that the Apostle used [the word] according to ancient custom. For [being] a Hebrew, he used that thing which is rolled around, as is wont to be done in the books which are among us; whose unrolling is wont to effect not an obscuring, but a manifestation of the things which are written. Clement of Rome likewise, pontiff after Peter, in the second and third book of the Recognitions, narrating this place more fully, thus writes: ⁸³ THERE ARE two heavens: the one, the higher, encompassing the visible firmament — and that is perpetual and eternal, with those who dwell there; the other, this visible lower [heaven], which at the consummation of the age shall be dissolved, and shall pass away, that that heaven which is more ancient and more lofty may appear. For when the number of souls which are predestined shall be filled up, and the times of this world shall have come to an end, then this visible heaven shall be rolled up like a book, that that which is above may appear; and the souls of the blessed, restored to their bodies, may be brought into the light. For, for the sake of this present life of men, this visible heaven was made, that it might be a certain interposition and division, lest perchance anyone unworthy should see the habitation of the heavenly [ones], and the seat of God himself; which is prepared to be seen [only] by those alone who are clean of heart. For now — that is, in the time of the contest [agon] — it has pleased [God] that those [things] which are destined as a reward to the victors should be invisible. For just as the shell of eggs, although it seems beautifully made and diligently formed, must be broken and dissolved, that thence the chick may come forth, and that [thing] for the sake of which the whole form of the egg seems to be expressed may appear: so also the state of this world must pass away, that that state of the heavenly kingdom may shine forth. Thus far Clement. To whom Justin, the philosopher and martyr, in the book of Questions posed by the Gentiles, subscribes in almost the same words. But those who attribute to this word נגול nagol the signification of rolling together and folding up, say that the heavens are to be folded up for various causes. Andreas, bishop of Caesarea, in [his] exposition of the Apocalypse, ⁸⁴ thinks that by this rolling-up is to be understood, hyperbolically, the sadness of the celestial virtues, wherewith on that day they shall grieve together over those who have fallen away from the faith of Christ. For just as elsewhere we read [that] the heaven [is] stretched out like a tabernacle, ⁸⁵ so now, by reason of bitterness, it is said [to be] rolled up like a book. Origen, in the Tomes on the book of Genesis — as Eusebius relates in the sixth book Of the Evangelical Preparation — said that the whole heaven is, as it were, a certain open book, containing the significations of all future things and of human events, ⁸⁶ but without any compulsion of human liberty; Moses saying: ⁸⁷ GOD placed the stars in the firmament, that they may be for signs — that is, that they may signify the reasons of future things, ordained by divine providence. When, therefore, all [those things] shall have been fulfilled and come to pass which the stars, divinely ordained, announce to the human race, then the heavens shall be folded up like a book — that is, they shall cease from the announcing of future things, nor shall they any longer signify the events to come. Jerome, however, says ⁸⁸ that the heavens are to be folded up on the day of judgment, so that after that day the sins of the wicked shall no longer be written in the heavens. Thomas Aquinas, treating the present place, says that this is the Prophet’s meaning: that just as in a folded-up book nothing can be read, so neither in the heaven shall the astrologers and augurs of the Jews be able to foresee the calamities which the Jewish people is to receive from the Assyrians, and the Chaldeans, and other nations. Ambrose, in [his] commentaries on the Apocalypse, explaining according to allegory that [saying] of John — THE HEAVEN DEPARTED AS A BOOK ROLLED UP ⁸⁹ — interprets by Heaven the Old Testament, which to the Jews is as a book rolled up: ⁹⁰ because they will not understand the spiritual intelligence, which demonstrates Christ in the Old Testament. The Heaven, therefore, like a rolled-up book, departed: because the Old Testament forsook the Jews, and passed over to the Gentiles. Tyconius the African takes heaven allegorically for the Church: ⁹¹ since, just as a rolled-up book contains mysteries within, but not apparent without, so the Church, in that supreme persecution of Antichrist — known to her own only, and hidden from strangers — shall withdraw from the eyes of the impious, prudently and secretly avoiding the disaster of that persecution.

SEVEN LETTERS OF JOHN the Apostle to the Bishops of the seven Churches, written at the command of Christ — namely, to the bishops of the churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea: the contents of which are read in the second and third chapter of the Apocalypse, as Victorinus the martyr noted in [his] commentaries on that place. Origen, in the 20th homily on Numbers, and the 13th homily on Luke, ⁹² reckons that these seven bishops — whom John, in writing, calls Angels — were truly angels, not only in name and office, but also in nature.

THE EPISTLE OF JOHN the Apostle and Evangelist TO THE PARTHIANS. Making mention of this, Augustine, in the second book of the Evangelical Questions, question 39, says: IT WAS SAID by John, in the epistle to the Parthians: DEARLY BELOVED, now are we the sons of God, and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is. Whether Augustine cited this testimony out of the first Catholic [epistle] of John — where this very same [text] is read entire, to the letter — or whether he adduced it out of some other epistle written to the Parthians, I do not sufficiently perceive. See the first book, at [the entry] the Epistle of John.

THE ACTS OF JOHN. Philastrius mentions [these] in the Catalog of heresies, chapter fifty-four, saying: THE MANICHAEANS have the Acts of Blessed John the Evangelist, and of Peter, and of Paul, likewise reproved by the Church: because in these they relate that the Apostles did great signs and prodigies — so that cattle, and beasts, and dogs spoke; and they say that the souls of men are, as it were, [the souls] of dogs and cattle. James [Jacobus de Voragine], Archbishop of Genoa, in the book of the Yearly Festivities [the Golden Legend], brings forward a certain Apocryphal book of John the Evangelist, Of the passing-over and assumption of the Virgin Mary: out of which he also recites the history of that same solemnity, summarily collected. But Augustine convicts the vanity of that work, in sermon 35, On the saints, where, speaking of the bodily death of the Virgin Mary, he thus says: ⁹³ BUT neither is any of the treatise-writers found among the Latins to have said anything openly concerning the death of Mary. And what do I say of these, when not even he who received her before the cross of the Lord into his own [care] — that is, John the Evangelist — committed anything of this by writings to be retained by posterity? For no one could have narrated [it] more faithfully (had God willed to manifest it) than he, assuredly, who undertook to nourish [care for] her. It remains, therefore, that a man should not mendaciously feign as open [manifest] what God willed to remain hidden. See below, under [the entry] Mary.

THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN — the Alogian heretics believed [it] to have been published not by John the Apostle, but by Cerinthus the heretic; and on this account they judged that it should be avoided, as the work of a most pestilent scoundrel. Epiphanius, in the second book against the heresies. See below, book six, [under] Heresy.

THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN, according to Cerinthus. Concerning this work, Gaius, a disciple of Origen, in the dialogue of his disputations, thus writes: CERINTHUS, by certain revelations — which he would pretend to have been written by the great Apostle, and revealed to him through Angels — introduces to us such portents as these: that after the resurrection the kingdom of Christ shall be earthly in Jerusalem, and that men [shall be] in the flesh again, [and shall] have a manner of life subject to lusts and vices; and — against the faith also of the scriptures — he designates certain thousand years, in which [he says] many other works of corruption, and festivities of nuptials, shall be future, for the deceiving of those who are given to lust.

THE COMMENTARY OF JOHN MACCABAEUS, high priest — or, The Book of the days of the priesthood of John. Out of this the author of the first book of Maccabees excerpted several deeds of John [Hyrcanus], son of Mattathias: of which the last chapter of the first [book] of Maccabees makes mention, in these words: ⁹⁴ THE REST of the words of John, and of his wars, and of the good deeds which he strongly did, and of the building of the walls which he raised up, and of his acts — behold, these are written in the book of the days of his principality and priesthood. This work is extant in Greek at Lyons, in the Library which had been [that] of Santes Pagninus, a man most skilled in the three tongues, under the title THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE MACCABEES (LIERI [read LIBRI] QVARTI MACCABAEORVM). See above, in the first book, in the section of the Apocrypha.

JONATHAN, high priest and leader of the Jews, wrote — for entering into an alliance with the Lacedaemonians — a letter to the Spartans, which is had in 1 Maccabees 12.

THE PRAYER OF JOSEPH [Oratio Ioseph], or Sermon, or Narration, or Disputation of Joseph, son of Jacob the Patriarch — a writing which among the ancients, both Hebrews and Christians, had no little authority, which Origen called a not-to-be-despised writing — perhaps because he had read certain [things] in it agreeing with his own opinions. For in the second tome of the exposition on John, he especially uses the testimonies of this [book] to confirm [his] assertion concerning the incarnation of certain angels, whom he himself believes to have assumed a human soul and body in imitation of our Saviour, ⁹⁵ writing thus: BUT IF anyone approve also that mystical Prayer of Joseph which is had among the Hebrews, he will receive thence a dogma like this — namely, that certain [beings], of the nature of angels, descended into the nature of men. For Jacob says in this Prayer: FOR I, who speak with you, Jacob and Israel, am an angel of God, and a chief spirit; and Abraham and Isaac were created before every work. But I, Jacob — called Jacob not by men, but Israel is my name; and I was called Israel by God, [that is,] the Man seeing God: for I am the firstborn of every living thing which receives from God the use of life. And when I came from Mesopotamia of Syria, Uriel, the angel of God, came forth; and he said that I had descended into the earth, and had dwelt among men, and was called by the name of Jacob. Moreover he rivaled me, and fought and wrestled with me, saying that his name would be set before my name, and before that [name] which precedes the whole Gospel; and I declared to him his name; and he holds a principality among the sons of God. For thou art Uriel, the eighth from me. I also am Israel, the archangel of the host of the Lord, and I am, among the sons of God, a commander of a thousand soldiers. Am I not that Israel, the first minister in the sight of God? And I invoked my God by [his] immortal name. But we have strayed too far from our purpose, having taken up the disputation about Jacob, and having produced for ourselves, as a witness, a not-to-be-despised writing. Thus Origen — who, in the Tomes of the expositions on Genesis, showing from this same narration that in the stars of heaven, as in books, all the foreknowledges of human events can be read by skilled inspectors of the stars, thus says: THE WHOLE HEAVEN is, as it were, a certain open book, containing written in itself all future things: therefore, in the Prayer of Joseph, it may be understood in this way, [in] that [which] is said by Jacob to [his] sons: I have read in the tablets of heaven whatsoever shall befall you and your sons. These same words, taken by name out of this very writing, Eusebius of Caesarea reports in the sixth book of the Evangelical Preparation, and Procopius of Gaza in the exposition of the first chapter of the book of Genesis. Athanasius, in his Synopsis, rejects this whole narration among the Apocryphal writings.

CICCUS [Cecco] OF ASCOLI, in [his] commentaries on the Centiloquium of Ptolemy, making mention of these tablets of heaven, left [it] thus written: The common opinion of the wise astrologers is that not only the eighth sphere, but also the ninth and the tenth, are like tablets painted with various configurations, images, and marks: for in the sign of Aries is the image of a beautiful youth, and in the sign of Virgo, the image of a virgin carrying a boy; and in the other signs and parts of the heaven are diverse effigies, and characters, and letters, showing us the causes of these lower [things] — concerning which is to be understood that sentence of the Patriarch Jacob: I have read in the tablets of heaven whatsoever shall befall you. And these figures are not idle, but influence various effects into this world. And therefore Ptolemy says, in this part of the Centiloquium: THE FACES of this world are subject to the faces of the superior bodies — that is, to the figurations and aspects of the images which are in the celestial bodies. And although these figures cannot be seen by all indifferently, yet by those who have the sharpest sight and the most purified mind, at certain times and in the clearest serenity of night, they can be descried. Whence, from the observation of these, was gathered by the wise that art which is called the Notory [Art], by the virtue of which those same wise men performed many wonderful experiments for the use of men. For they engraved — either in metals, or in choice stones — or they imprinted, in gum, or in wax or clay, the marks of the celestial figures which they had seen in the tablets of heaven, and they added the names of the angels whom, by God’s revealing, they had known to preside over those figures; and thus, from the engraving and impression of these, they worked many admirable effects, to the praise of God and the benefit of men. But afterward certain corrupters of this art added to it certain figures, and infernal marks, which they said were found in the region of the damned, and the names of demons — out of which, at the devil’s persuasion, they formed images for inducing lusts, discords, homicides, thefts, sicknesses, bewitchings, poisonings, sorceries, etc. And therefore, on account of this corruption, it came about at last that the art — good in itself — was, on account of the superadded malice, condemned and prohibited. Thus far Ciccus: intimating by these words that the former part of this art is not to be disapproved. Nor does Thomas Cajetan seem to be far from his opinion, who — upon the Secunda Secundae of St. Thomas, expounding Article 2, question 96 — contends with keen zeal that the images of the stars and of the celestial signs, imprinted on metals by astronomical artifice, are endowed with the powers of those same stars ⁹⁶: for example, that the figure of the Lion [Leo], engraved on gold while the constellation Leo holds the ascendant, would receive from the star of the Lion a certain profitable power, most salutary especially for those whom the influx of the Leonine constellation governs. But I, to declare frankly what is in my mind, judge that both parts are, by fullest right, to be hissed off and utterly rejected: the first indeed as an empty and superstitious fallacy, resting on no reason or authority; the latter as a certain and open impiety of detestable infidelity. Both are condemned by St. Thomas in the Secunda Secundae, question 96, and by the Ecumenical Synod of Trent, in the Index of rejected volumes.

IOTA and APEX — in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew [they] are called יוד או עוקץ Yod o ʿoqets, that is, Yod, or Apex [tittle]; but in the Greek, ἰῶτα ἓν, ἢ μία κεραία — that is, one Iota, or one apex. Concerning these, Christ, speaking in passing in Matthew, says: ⁹⁷ AMEN I say to you, till heaven and earth pass, one iota, or one Apex, shall not pass from the law, till all be done — wishing by these words vehemently to express the perfect observance of the whole law in himself ⁹⁸, even to the least and slightest precepts to be fulfilled. For these — the Iod and the apices [tittles] — signified the smallest particles of the law. For since there are two kinds of precepts in the law — the one Moral, the other Ceremonial — Christ fulfilled both. ⁹⁹ For the ceremonial [precepts], which were nothing but shadows and figures of the Christ to come, Christ himself obscured [outshone] by the splendor of his coming. But the moral [precepts] he alone fulfilled most perfectly, in himself and by himself, according to the will of God the lawgiver, because he alone was innocent and without sin; and then he granted us also to fulfill these same [precepts] by the spirit of his grace. But, since by the name of Apex, both among the Greeks and among the Latins, two [things] are signified — namely, points, and the topmost tips of letters — this place gave occasion of inquiring what Apex here signifies: points, or the tips of letters. ¹⁰⁰ Christian Druthmar, in [his] commentaries on Matthew, writes thus on this matter: An APEX is called the mark [titulus] which among the ancients was placed over certain letters, whether for the sake of distinction, or to show that the letter was to be doubled. For example, when Populus [meant] a people, it was not placed: but when Populus meant a tree [poplar], then an apex was placed above, that it might warn the reader to depart from the usual meaning, and [that] the syllable was long. [It] was also placed for the sake of doubling — as in Alleluia, because there two L’s ought to be, one L was written, and an apex above; from this it was understood that the letter L was to be doubled. In the syllable IA likewise, an apex was placed over the I, to show that that I was to be doubled. The Lord, therefore, shows that such distinctions are not to be passed over in the divine scripture: because, if they were neglected, the sense also would perish along [with them]. Thus he. Others of the Latins suppose that by Apices here ought to be understood those points which are everywhere written in the Hebrew codices, for forming the sounds of the vowel letters; and they assert that the marks of these points existed not only in the times of Christ, but even long before — many doctors of the Hebrews attesting this. Of whom some refer the invention of the vowel-points to the men of the Great Synagogue — in which were Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, Ezra, and Nehemiah; but others judge this invention to be from God, who delivered the law to Moses on Mount Sinai together with the letters and the vowel-points. The greater part of the learned men opposes their opinion; of whose number Augustine, in the first book On the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, expounds by Apices the little parts placed at the top of letters. Isidore says the Apices are little lines on the tips of letters; Euthymius, oblique lines; Thomas calls [them] little strokes drawn at the top of letters, which distinguish the like figures of the Hebrew letters. Which opinion indeed I judge most true — both because that Syriac or Chaldaic word עוקץ ʿOqets signifies rather the summit [point] of a thing than a point [dot]; and because it is sufficiently established that in the times of Christ, and long after, the Hebrew letters lacked the vowel-points — which (as Elias [Levita] writes in the preface of the book Masoreth ha-Masoreth) the Rabbis of the city of Tiberias, more practiced than the rest in the holy tongue, invented and added to the reading, in the 436th year from the last devastation of the temple — that is, in the year of Christ 476. ¹⁰¹ Of which matter there are also these proofs: that neither Epiphanius nor Jerome made any mention at all of these points, although they often had occasion and necessity of speaking about them, if they had existed at that time; and the most ancient codices of the Hebrews, even if now they have the points, are perceived nevertheless once not to have had them — both from the dissimilarity of the ink, and from the position of the [points] themselves. Now the ancient Jews, in writing, used almost always consonants alone (as has been said elsewhere), which they pronounced according to the common usage of speaking, following the variety of the regions. Jerome attests this in the epistle to Evagrius; who, disputing whether — where in Genesis it is said, MELCHIZEDEK, KING OF SALEM — it should be read Salem or Salim, thus says: ¹⁰² IT MATTERS not whether thou read Salem or Salim, since the Hebrews very rarely use vowels in the midst of the letters; and, according to the will of the readers and the diversity of the regions, they utter the same words with different sounds and accents. See on this matter in the third book, in the Elementary Exposition.

THE JUDICIAL BOOKS, or The Books opened in the judgment. Concerning these Daniel says, in the seventh chapter: THE JUDGMENT sat, and the books were opened. ¹⁰³ The opening of the books signifies ¹⁰⁴ the opening of hearts, and of human minds — which now are inscrutable to us — [an opening] to be future on the day of judgment; when, before the tribunal of God, in the sight of all, the works of each one, whether good or evil, shall be laid open. And since God wishes the books to be kept closed with him until that supreme day, by this example he admonishes us not to judge rashly the hidden and unknown minds and thoughts of our brethren — which God willed to be hidden from mortals in this world — but to leave them to be judged by Him who alone knows the hearts of men, according to the precept of Paul, saying: THEREFORE judge not before the time, until the Lord come, who will illuminate the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise from God. ¹⁰⁵

THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS ISCARIOT — the Cainite heretics venerated [it] greatly. In it Judas is magnificently praised, in that he betrayed Christ, his master, to the Jews, according to the knowledge which he had of the divine determination [decree]. For Judas knew that through the death of Christ the world would be redeemed, and the kingdom of Satan overthrown; and on that account he hastened to betray Christ, that he might procure salvation for us through his cross. Epiphanius, in the first book of the Panarion against the Cainites, and Theodoret, in the first book of the Heretical fables, are witnesses.

JUDAS MACCABAEUS collected the commentaries of the holy war, which Mattathias [his] father undertook against the kings of Asia for the liberty of [his] country and the divine laws, and which he himself, after [his] Father, gloriously accomplished. The author of the second book of Maccabees, chapter 2, obscurely intimates these, in these words: ¹⁰⁶ JUDAS gathered together all those [things] which he had learned through the war which had befallen us; and they are with us — which, if you desire to read, send [those] who may bring [them] to you.

THE BOOK OF THE JUST [Upright] (which the sacred letters call ספר הישר Sepher ha-yashar [printed chaiasciar], and the LXX everywhere rendered βιβλίον τοῦ εὐθοῦς — that is, The Book of the just [the upright]) was of great authority among the divine writers. Out of it, in the book of Joshua, is brought forward the testimony concerning the miracle of the Sun standing in the midst of heaven, in these words: IS this not written in the book of the just: And the Sun and the Moon stood still, until the nation avenged itself of its enemies? ¹⁰⁷ And in the second book of Kings, chapter 1, it is had: DAVID commanded that they should teach the sons of Judah the bow, as it is written in the book of the just. ^{108 109} Some think that this is the book of the eternal predestination, in which are written all the just, whom God in his eternal foreknowledge foreknew to be saved; psalm 63 [68] attesting this, in which is read: LET THEM BE BLOTTED OUT of the book of the just, and let them not be written with the just. ¹¹⁰ Jerome, in the Questions on the books of Kings (if however that work is Jerome’s), hands down that this is the book of Samuel — that is, the first and second volume of Kings — because in it are written the deeds of the just: namely, of Samuel, David, Nathan, Gad, and other Just [men]. Certain of the Hebrews — to whom it does not seem likely that the same book should adduce itself in testimony of its own statement — think that this is the book of the twelve prophets; because the words cited in the book of Joshua are written in the prayer of Habakkuk in this manner: ¹¹¹ THE SUN and Moon stood still in their dwelling. Which opinion indeed cannot be true, because the book of the twelve Prophets was written almost a thousand years after the times of Joshua. Accordingly Rabbi Solomon [Rashi] teaches that this is the volume of the whole law, in which are written the deeds of the just — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses; but especially that admonition to the sons of Israel, that they should exercise themselves in the art of war (in which the bow and arrows then held the chief place), mindful of that precept, THY HANDS [SHALL BE] ON THE NECKS OF THINE ENEMIES; which is contained in the volume of Genesis. ¹¹² There are also those who believe this to be the book of Exodus, because in it God said to Moses: WRITE this for a memorial, and deliver [it] to the ears of Joshua; for I will blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. ¹¹³ Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, in the Questions on Joshua, supposes this to be a most ancient commentary, out of which the history of the book of Joshua was collected in compendium by an uncertain author.