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← Discours sur l'histoire universelle/Book 1 · Discours sur l'histoire universelle — Seconde partie : La suite de la religion
Chapter 10DiscoursHistUniv.1.10

La suite des erreurs des Juifs

The Prophetic Path and the Missed Moment

The author introduces the errors of the Jews, specifically their failure to recognize the time of Christ as marked by the prophecies of Jacob and Daniel.

The consequences of the Jews' errors and how they interpret the prophecies. We shouldn't be surprised that they fell into such errors, or that the storm scattered them after they had left their path. That path was marked out for them in their prophecies, especially those that pointed toward the time of Christ. They let those precious moments pass without making use of them: that is why we then see them given over to falsehood, and they no longer know what to hold onto. Give me one more moment to tell you about the rest of their errors and all the steps they took to sink deeper into the abyss. The paths by which people go astray always connect to the main road; and by considering where the straying began, one walks more securely on the right way. We have seen, my lord, that two prophecies marked out the time of Christ for the Jews: those of Jacob and Daniel.✦ Both of them marked the ruin of the kingdom of Judah at the time when Christ would come. But Daniel explained that the total destruction of that kingdom was to follow from the death of Christ; and Jacob said clearly that in the decline of the kingdom of Judah, the Christ who would come then would be the expectation of the peoples—that is, that he would be their liberator, and that a new kingdom would be formed, composed no longer of a single people, but of all the peoples of the world.✦✦1 The prophetic words can't have any other meaning, and it was the Jews' constant tradition that they should be understood this way.✦

The Loss of Temporal Authority

The loss of the power of life and death and the decline of the Sanhedrin serve as historical markers that the time of the Messiah had arrived.

This led to the belief, widespread among the ancient rabbis and still found in their Talmud, that when Christ arrived, there would no longer be any magistracy; consequently, nothing was more important for identifying the time of their Messiah than watching for when they would fall into that miserable state.✦ They had certainly made a good start; if their minds hadn't been preoccupied with the worldly grandeur they hoped to find in the Messiah—so they could share in it under his empire—they couldn't have failed to recognize Jesus Christ. The foundation they laid was solid: as soon as the tyranny of the first Herod and the resulting shift in the Jewish commonwealth showed them the moment of decline marked in the prophecy, they had no doubt that Christ must come and that this new kingdom, where all peoples were to be gathered, would soon appear.✦✦ One of the things they noticed was that the power of life and death had been taken from them. It was a great change, since that power had always been kept for them until then, under whatever rule they were subject to, and even in Babylon during their captivity.2 The story of Susanna makes this clear enough, and it remains a constant tradition among them. The Persian kings who restored them left them this power by an express decree, as we noted earlier; we have also seen that the first Seleucids expanded rather than restricted their privileges. I don't need to speak here again about the reign of the Maccabees, when they were not only free but powerful and formidable to their enemies. Pompey, who weakened them in the way we have seen, content with the tribute he imposed on them and with putting them in a condition where the Roman people could dispose of them when need arose, left them their prince with full jurisdiction. It's well enough known that the Romans handled things this way, and did not touch the internal government in the countries where they left their natural kings. In the end the Jews agree that they lost this power of life and death only forty years before the desolation of the second temple; and there can be no doubt that it was Herod the First who began to strike this wound against their liberty. For once, to avenge himself on the Sanhedrin—where he himself had been forced to appear before he was king—and then to draw all authority to himself alone, he had attacked that assembly, which was like the senate founded by Moses and the permanent council of the nation where supreme jurisdiction was exercised; little by little that great body lost its power, and very little of it remained when Jesus Christ came into the world. Matters grew worse under Herod's children, when the kingdom of Archelaus, with Jerusalem as its capital, was reduced to a Roman province and governed by presidents sent by the emperors.3 In that wretched state the Jews retained so little of the power of life and death that, to put Jesus Christ to death—whom they wanted ruined at any cost—they had to turn to Pilate; and when that weak governor told them to put him to death themselves, they answered with one voice, "We do not have the power to put anyone to death."✦ So it was by Herod's hands that they put Saint James, the brother of Saint John, to death and imprisoned Saint Peter. When they had resolved on Saint Paul's death, they handed him over to the Romans as they had done with Jesus Christ; and the sacrilegious vow of their false zealots, who swore neither to drink nor to eat until they had killed that holy apostle, shows clearly enough that they believed themselves stripped of the power to put him to death by law. And if they stoned Saint Stephen, it was in a riot, one of those seditious outbursts that the Romans couldn't always suppress among those who then called themselves the Zealots. We must therefore consider it certain, based on these histories, the Jews' own agreement, and the state of their affairs, that around the time of Our Lord—especially in the years he began his ministry—they had entirely lost their temporal authority. They couldn't witness this loss without remembering Jacob's ancient oracle, which foretold that in the time of the Messiah, there would no longer be any power, authority, or magistracy among them.✦ One of their oldest authors notes this, and he's right to admit that the scepter was no longer in Judah, nor was authority with the leaders of the people, since public power had been taken from them; once the Sanhedrin was degraded, the members of that great body were no longer regarded as judges but as mere teachers.✦4 So, by their own account, it was time for Christ to appear. As they saw this sure sign of the near arrival of that new king, whose empire was to stretch over every people, they believed that he was, in fact, about to appear.✦ Word of it spread through the surrounding country, and throughout the East, people became convinced that it wouldn't be long before those who would rule the whole earth came out of Judea. Tacitus and Suetonius report this rumor as a settled belief, based on an ancient oracle found in the sacred books of the Jewish people. Josephus recounts this prophecy in the same terms, and says, as they do, that it was found in the holy books. The authority of these books, whose predictions had been so visibly fulfilled on so many occasions, was great throughout the East; and the Jews, more attentive than others to watching for the junctures that had been written mainly for their instruction, recognized the time of the Messiah that Jacob had marked in their decline.✦ So the reflections they made on their condition were right; and without mistaking the times of Christ, they knew that he was to come at the very time he did in fact come. But, oh, the weakness of the human mind and the vanity that is the inevitable source of blindness! The Savior’s humility hid from these proud people the true greatness they should have been looking for in their Messiah. They wanted him to be a king like the kings of the earth. That is why the flatterers of the first Herod, dazzled by the greatness and magnificence of that prince—who, tyrant though he was, still did not fail to enrich Judea—said that he himself was that long-promised king.

The Blindness of Pride

The author examines how pride and worldly expectations led the Jews to misidentify the Messiah, resulting in the rise of false claimants and the rejection of Jesus.

This is also what gave rise to the sect of the Herodians, so often mentioned in the Gospel and known to pagans as well, since Persius and his scholiast tell us that even in Nero's day, King Herod's birthday was celebrated by his followers with the same solemnity as the Sabbath. Josephus fell into a similar error. This man, trained as he himself says in the Jewish prophecies, being a priest and born of the priestly line, did recognize that the coming of this king promised by Jacob fit the times of Herod, when he himself so carefully shows us a clear beginning of the ruin of the Jews; but since he saw nothing in his nation that answered those ambitious ideas it had formed of its Christ, he pushed the time of the prophecy a little further forward; and applying it to Vespasian, he insisted that this oracle of Scripture meant that prince who was declared emperor in Judea.✦ This is how he twisted Holy Scripture to authorize his flattery: he was a blind man who transferred the hope of Jacob and of Judah to foreigners; who looked for the son of Abraham and of David in Vespasian; and who gave an idolatrous prince the title of the one whose light was meant to draw the Gentiles out of idolatry. The circumstances of the times favored him. But while he was attributing to Vespasian what Jacob had said of the Christ, the zealots defending Jerusalem claimed it for themselves.5 It was on this sole foundation that they promised themselves empire over the world, as Josephus recounts—more reasonable than he, in that at least they did not leave the nation to look for the fulfillment of the promises made to their fathers. How could they not open their eyes to the great fruit the preaching of the Gospel was already bearing among the Gentiles, and to this new empire that Jesus Christ was establishing throughout the earth? What could be more beautiful than an empire where piety reigned, where the true God triumphed over idolatry, where eternal life was proclaimed to the unbelieving nations? And wasn't even the empire of the Caesars empty pomp next to this one? But this empire wasn't brilliant enough in the world's eyes. How necessary it is to be free of illusions about human greatness if you're to know Jesus Christ! The Jews knew the times; the Jews saw the nations being called to the God of Abraham, according to Jacob's oracle, by Jesus Christ and his disciples: and yet they failed to recognize this Jesus, who was declared to them by so many signs. Even though he confirmed his mission through so many miracles during his life and after his death, these blind people rejected him. They did so because he possessed only a solid greatness, stripped of any display that appeals to the senses, and because he came to condemn their blind ambition rather than to crown it. And yet, forced by the circumstances of the time, they sometimes seemed, despite their blindness, to set their prejudices aside. Everything in Our Lord's time was so ordered toward the manifestation of the Messiah that they suspected Saint John the Baptist might well be him.✦ His austere, extraordinary, and astonishing way of life struck them. Lacking the world's greatness, they seemed at first willing to settle for the brilliance of such a prodigious life. The simple, ordinary life of Jesus Christ repelled those minds, as coarse as they were proud, who could be taken only through the senses, and who, far from a sincere conversion, would admire nothing but what they looked on as inimitable. In this way Saint John the Baptist, whom people judged worthy to be the Christ, was not believed when he pointed out the true Christ; and Jesus Christ, whom one had to imitate if one believed in him, seemed too humble to the Jews to be followed.✦ Still, the impression they had formed that the Christ was to appear in that age was so strong that it persisted among them for nearly a century.

The Labyrinth of False Expectations

The Jews, unable to reconcile their failed expectations with the passage of time, resorted to inventing false messiahs and abandoning the study of prophetic timelines.

They believed that the fulfillment of the prophecies could have a certain breadth and was not always entirely confined to one precise moment; so that for nearly a hundred years people among them talked of nothing but the false Christs who gathered followers, and the false prophets who announced them. The centuries before had seen nothing of the kind; and the Jews did not lavish the name of Christ either when Judas Maccabeus won so many victories over their tyrant, or when his brother Simon freed them from the yoke of the Gentiles, or when the first Hyrcanus made so many conquests. The timing and other signs didn't match, and it was only in the century of Jesus Christ that people began to speak of all these messiahs. The Samaritans, who read Jacob's prophecy in the Pentateuch, made Christs for themselves just as the Jews did, and a little after Jesus Christ they recognized their Dositheus. Simon Magus, from that same region, also boasted that he was the Son of God, and his disciple Menander called himself the savior of the world. Even during Jesus Christ's lifetime, the Samaritan woman believed that the Messiah was about to come; the conviction was so firmly fixed in the nation, and among all who read Jacob's ancient oracle, that the Christ was to appear under those circumstances. When the appointed time had passed so far that there was nothing left to wait for, and when the Jews had seen by experience that all the messiahs they had followed—far from delivering them from their troubles—had only sunk them deeper into them, no new messiahs appeared among them for a long time; Bar Kokhba was the last they recognized as such in those early times of Christianity.6 But the old impression couldn't be entirely erased. Instead of believing that the Christ had appeared, as they had still done in Hadrian's day, under the Antonines, his successors, they hit on saying that their messiah was already in the world, even though he had not yet shown himself, because he was waiting for the prophet Elijah, who was to come and anoint him.✦ This talk was common among them in Saint Justin's time; we also find in their Talmud the teaching of one of their most ancient masters, who said that the Christ had come, and so on. Such a fantasy couldn't take hold in people's minds; and the Jews, finally forced to admit that the Messiah hadn't come at the time when they had reason to expect him according to their ancient prophecies, fell into another abyss. They came close to losing hope in their Messiah, who failed them at the appointed time, and many followed a famous rabbi whose words are still preserved in the Talmud. This man, seeing that the deadline had long since passed, concluded that the Israelites no longer had a Messiah to wait for, and so on.7 In truth, this opinion, far from prevailing among the Jews, was detested by them. But since they no longer understand anything about the times marked out for them by their prophecies, and since they don't know how to escape this labyrinth, they have made an article of faith out of this saying that we read in the Talmud, and so on.8 as one sees, in a storm that has driven the ship too far off its course, the despairing pilot abandon his reckoning and go wherever chance leads him. From that time on, their entire focus has been to evade the prophecies that marked the time of Christ. They didn't care about overturning all their fathers' traditions, as long as they could take these remarkable prophecies away from the Christians; they even went so far as to claim that Jacob's prophecy didn't concern the Christ. But their ancient books give them the lie. In the Talmud, this prophecy is understood to refer to the Messiah, and our interpretation is found in their own paraphrases—that is, in the most authentic and respected commentaries they have.9 We find it stated there, in so many words, that the house and kingdom of Judah—to which all of Jacob's descendants and the entire people of Israel would one day be reduced—would always produce judges and magistrates until the coming of the Messiah, under whom a kingdom made up of all peoples would be formed. That is the testimony their most famous and widely accepted teachers still gave to the Jews in the early days of Christianity. An ancient tradition so firm and so well established could not be abolished at first; and although the Jews did not apply Jacob's prophecy to Jesus Christ, they had not yet dared deny that it applied to the Messiah. They only reached that extreme much later, when, hard-pressed by the Christians, they finally saw that their own tradition was against them. As for Daniel's prophecy, which set the coming of Christ within a 490-year window starting from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, it was a very ancient tradition among the Jews that the Messiah would appear toward the end of the world's fourth millennium—about two thousand years after Abraham—since that timeframe aligned with the end of that millennium.10 An Elijah, whose name is held in high regard among the Jews even though he is not the prophet, had taught this before the birth of Jesus Christ, and the tradition has been preserved in the Talmud. You've seen this timeframe fulfilled at the coming of Our Lord, as he did in fact appear about two thousand years after Abraham and around the year 4000 of the world. Yet the Jews didn't recognize him; frustrated in their expectations, they claimed their sins had delayed the coming of the Messiah. But still our dates are confirmed by their own admission; and it is far too great a blindness to make a term that God marked so precisely in Daniel depend on men. It remains a great embarrassment for them to see that this prophet places the time of Christ before the ruin of Jerusalem, meaning that once the latter time has passed, the time preceding it must have been fulfilled as well. Josephus has gone far too badly wrong here. He correctly counted the weeks that would lead up to the desolation of the Jewish people, and seeing them fulfilled when Titus laid siege to Jerusalem, he had no doubt that the city's ruin had arrived. But he failed to consider that this desolation had to be preceded by the coming of Christ and by his death, so he only understood half the prophecy. The Jews who came later wanted to make up for this shortcoming. They have forged for us an Agrippa descended from Herod, whom the Romans, they say, put to death a little before the ruin of Jerusalem; and they want this Agrippa—Christ by his title of king—to be the Christ spoken of in Daniel: a fresh proof of their blindness. For besides the fact that this Agrippa can be neither the Just One, nor the Holy of Holies, nor the fulfillment of the prophecies, as the Christ whom Daniel marked out in that place was to be; and besides the fact that the murder of this Agrippa, of which the Jews were innocent, could not have been the cause of their desolation, as the death of Daniel's Christ was to be: what the Jews say here is a fable.✦11 This Agrippa, a descendant of Herod, was always on the side of the Romans; he was always treated well by their emperors and reigned in a district of Judea long after the capture of Jerusalem, as Josephus and other contemporaries confirm. So everything the Jews invent to evade the prophecies confounds them. They don't even trust such crude inventions themselves, and their best defense is the rule they've laid down: to stop counting the days of the Messiah.12 By doing this, they willingly shut their eyes to the truth and renounce the prophecies in which the Holy Spirit himself has counted the years. Yet, in renouncing them, they fulfill them, making plain the truth of what those prophecies say about their blindness and their fall.

The Finality of the Fulfillment

The author concludes that the cessation of the Levitical priesthood and the preaching of the crucified Savior confirm the truth of the Gospel and the finality of the Jewish dispersion.

Let them answer the prophecies however they like: the desolation those prophecies foretold has come upon them at the appointed time. The event itself is stronger than all their subtleties, and if Christ didn't come at that fateful moment, the prophets they hope in have deceived them. To finish convincing them, notice two circumstances that accompanied their fall and the coming of the Savior of the world: first, that the succession of high priests, which had been perpetual and unalterable since Aaron, ended then; second, that the distinction of tribes and families, always preserved until that time, perished then by their own admission. This distinction was necessary until the time of the Messiah. The ministers of sacred things were to be born from Levi. The priests and high priests were to come from Aaron. The Messiah himself was to come from Judah.✦ If the distinction of the families hadn't lasted until the ruin of Jerusalem and the coming of Jesus Christ, the Jewish sacrifices would have perished before their time, and David would have been robbed of the glory of being recognized as the father of the Messiah. Has the Messiah come? Has the new priesthood, according to the order of Melchizedek, begun in his person, and has the new kingship that was not of this world appeared?✦ There's no longer any need for Aaron, or for Levi, or for Judah, or for David, or for their families. Aaron is no longer needed in a time when, according to Daniel, the sacrifices were to cease. The house of David and of Judah fulfilled its destiny when the Christ of God came from it; and as if the Jews themselves were renouncing their hope, they forget, precisely at that time, the succession of the families so carefully and so religiously preserved until then. Let's not leave out one of the marks of the Messiah's coming—and perhaps the chief one, if we know how to understand it rightly—though it is the scandal and the horror of the Jews. It is the forgiveness of sins announced in the name of a suffering Savior—a Savior humbled and obedient even to death.✦ Among his weeks, Daniel had marked out the mysterious week we already noted: when the Christ was to be slain, when the covenant was to be confirmed by his death, and when the ancient sacrifices were to lose their power.13 Join Daniel with Isaiah: we will find the whole substance of so great a mystery; we will see the man of sorrows, and so on. Open your eyes, unbelievers: isn't it true that the forgiveness of sins has been preached to you in the name of Jesus Christ crucified? Had anyone ever imagined such a mystery? Has anyone other than Jesus Christ—either before or after him—claimed the glory of washing away sins by his blood? Would he have had himself crucified on purpose to win an empty honor, and to fulfill in himself so fatal a prophecy?14 We must fall silent and worship a teaching in the gospel that could never have entered any human mind if it weren't true. The Jews' predicament is extreme on this point: they find too many passages in their Scriptures that speak of their messiah's humiliations. What, then, is to become of those who speak of his glory and his triumphs? The natural resolution is that he will come to his triumphs through battles, and to glory through sufferings. It's incredible! The Jews preferred to invent two messiahs. We see in their Talmud and in other books of comparable antiquity that they await a suffering messiah and a messiah full of glory: one dead and risen; the other always fortunate and always victorious; one to whom all the passages that speak of weakness apply; the other to whom all those that speak of greatness apply; one, finally, a son of Joseph—for they could not deny him one of the marks of Jesus Christ, who was reputed to be the son of Joseph—and the other a son of David: never willing to understand that this messiah, the son of David, was, according to David, to drink from the torrent before lifting up his head; that is, to be afflicted before being triumphant, as the son of David himself says.15 Etc. Besides, if we take of the Messiah that great passage where Isaiah so vividly shows us the man of sorrows struck for our sins and disfigured like a leper, we are still supported in this reading, as in all the others, by the ancient tradition of the Jews; and despite their prejudices, the chapter of their Talmud so often cited teaches us that this leper, burdened with the sins of the people, will be the Messiah. The sufferings of the Messiah that our sins will cause him are well known in that same place and in the other books of the Jews. They often mention his entrance into Jerusalem—as humble as it was glorious—mounted on a donkey, and they apply that famous prophecy of Zechariah to him. What do the Jews have to complain about? Everything had been laid out for them in precise terms by their prophets, and their ancient tradition had preserved the natural explanation of these famous prophecies. Nothing is more just than this rebuke the Savior of the world gives them: "Hypocrites, you know how to judge by the winds and the appearance of the sky whether the weather will be fair or rainy; yet you don't know how to recognize, from so many signs given to you, the time you are in!" Let us conclude, then, that the Jews were truly right to say that all the appointed times for the Messiah's coming have passed.16 Judah is no longer a kingdom or a people; other nations have acknowledged the Messiah who was to be sent.✦ Jesus Christ has been revealed to the Gentiles; at that sign, they have rushed to the God of Abraham, and the blessing of that patriarch has spread over the whole earth. The man of sorrows has been preached, and the forgiveness of sins has been proclaimed through his death. All the weeks have run their course; the desolation of the people and of the sanctuary—the just punishment for Christ’s death—has reached its final fulfillment. At last, Christ has appeared with every mark that the tradition of the Jews recognized in him, and their unbelief no longer has any excuse. So since that time we have seen unmistakable marks of their reprobation. After Jesus Christ they have done nothing but sink deeper and deeper into ignorance and misery, from which only the extremity of their sufferings, and the shame of having so often fallen prey to error, will bring them out—or rather the goodness of God, when the time fixed by his providence to punish their ingratitude and subdue their pride has been fulfilled. Meanwhile they remain the laughingstock of the nations, and the object of their aversion, without so long a captivity bringing them back to themselves, though it ought to be enough to convince them. For after all, as Saint Jerome says to them, etc.17 That is what Saint Jerome used to say. The argument has only grown stronger since then, and twelve hundred years have been added to the desolation of the Jewish people. So let's tell him that instead of four hundred years, sixteen centuries have seen his captivity last without his yoke growing any lighter.18 Etc.19

Read the original Latin

La suite des erreurs des Juifs, & la maniere dont ils expliquent les Prophèties.

Il ne faut pas s’étonner qu’ils soient tombez dans de tels égaremens, ni que la tempeste les ait dissipez aprés qu’ils ont eû quitté leur route. Cette route leur estoit marquée dans leurs propheties, principalement dans celles qui désignoient le temps du Christ. Ils ont laissé passer ces précieux momens sans en profiter : c’est pourquoy on les voit en suite livrez au mensonge, et ils ne sçavent plus à quoy se prendre. Donnez-moy encore un moment pour vous raconter la suite de leurs erreurs, et tous les pas qu’ils ont faits pour s’enfoncer dans l’abisme. Les routes par où on s’égare, tiennent toûjours au grand chemin ; et en considerant où l’égarement a commencé, on marche plus seûrement dans la droite voye. Nous avons veû, monseigneur, que deux propheties marquoient aux juifs le temps du Christ, celle de Jacob, et celle de Daniel. Elles marquoient toutes deux la ruine du royaume de Juda au temps que le Christ viendroit. Mais Daniel expliquoit que la totale destruction de ce royaume devoit estre une suite de la mort du Christ : et Jacob disoit clairement, que dans la décadence du royaume de Juda, le Christ qui viendroit alors seroit l’attente des peuples ; c’est à dire, qu’il en seroit le liberateur, et qu’il se feroit un nouveau royaume composé non plus d’un seul peuple, mais de tous les peuples du monde.

Les paroles de la prophetie ne peuvent avoir d’autre sens, et c’estoit la tradition constante des juifs qu’elles devoient s’entendre de cette sorte.

De là cette opinion répanduë parmi les anciens rabbins, et qu’on voit encore dans leur talmud, que dans le temps que le Christ viendroit, il n’y auroit plus de magistrature : de sorte qu’il n’y avoit rien de plus important pour connoistre le temps de leur messie, que d’observer quand ils tomberoient dans cét estat malheureux. En effet, ils avoient bien commencé ; et s’ils n’avoient eû l’esprit occupé des grandeurs mondaines qu’ils vouloient trouver dans le messie, afin d’y avoir part sous son empire, ils n’auroient peû méconnoistre Jesus-Christ. Le fondement qu’ils avoient posé estoit certain : car aussitost que la tyrannie du premier Hérode, et le changement de la république judaïque qui arriva de son temps, leur eût fait voir le moment de la décadence marquée dans la prophetie, ils ne douterent point que le Christ ne deust venir, et qu’on ne vist bientost ce nouveau royaume où devoient se réünir tous les peuples. Une des choses qu’ils remarquerent, c’est que la puissance de vie et de mort leur fut ostée. C’estoit un grand changement, puis qu’elle leur avoit toûjours esté conservée jusqu’alors, à quelque domination qu’ils fussent soumis, et mesme dans Babylone pendant leur captivité. L’histoire de Susanne le fait assez voir, et c’est une tradition constante parmi eux. Les rois de Perse qui les rétablirent, leur laisserent cette puissance par un decret exprés que nous avons remarqué en son lieu ; et nous avons veû aussi que les premiers seleucides avoient plustost augmenté que restraint leurs privileges. Je n’ay pas besoin de parler icy encore une fois du regne des machabées où ils furent non seulement affranchis, mais puissans et redoutables à leurs ennemis.

Pompée qui les affoiblit à la maniere que nous avons veûë, content du tribut qu’il leur imposa, et de les mettre en estat que le peuple romain en pust disposer dans le besoin, leur laissa leur prince avec toute la jurisdiction. On sçait assez que les romains en usoient ainsi, et ne touchoient point au gouvernement du dedans dans les païs à qui ils laissoient leurs rois naturels.

Enfin les juifs sont d’accord qu’ils perdirent cette puissance de vie et de mort, seulement quarante ans avant la desolation du second temple ; et on ne peut douter que ce ne soit le premier Hérode qui ait commencé à faire cette playe à leur liberté. Car depuis que pour se venger du sanedrin, où il avoit esté obligé de comparoistre luy mesme avant qu’il fust roy, et en suite pour s’attirer toute l’autorité à luy seul, il eût attaqué cette assemblée qui estoit comme le senat fondé par Moïse, et le conseil perpetuel de la nation où la supréme jurisdiction estoit exercée ; peu à peu ce grand corps perdit son pouvoir, et il luy en restoit bien peu quand Jesus-Christ vint au monde. Les affaires empirerent sous les enfans d’Hérode, lors que le royaume d’Archelaus, dont Jérusalem estoit la capitale, réduit en province romaine, fut gouverné par des présidens que les empereurs envoyoient. Dans ce malheureux estat les juifs garderent si peu la puissance de vie et de mort, que pour faire mourir Jesus-Christ, qu’à quelque prix que ce fust ils vouloient perdre, il leur fallut avoir recours à Pilate ; et ce foible gouverneur leur ayant dit qu’ils le fissent mourir eux-mesmes, ils répondirent tout d’une voix, nous n’avons pas le pouvoir de faire mourir personne . Aussi fut-ce par les mains d’Hérode qu’ils firent mourir Saint Jacques frere de Saint Jean, et qu’ils mirent Saint Pierre en prison. Quand ils eûrent résolu la mort de Saint Paul, ils le livrerent entre les mains des romains comme ils avoient fait Jesus-Christ ; et le voeu sacrilege de leurs faux zelez qui jurerent de ne boire ni ne manger jusques à ce qu’ils eussent tué ce saint apostre, montre assez qu’ils se croyoient décheûs du pouvoir de le faire mourir juridiquement. Que s’ils lapiderent Saint Estienne, ce fut tumultuairement, et par un effet de ces emportemens séditieux que les romains ne pouvoient pas toûjours réprimer dans ceux qui se disoient alors les zelateurs. On doit donc tenir pour certain, tant par ces histoires que par le consentement des juifs, et par l’estat de leurs affaires, que vers les temps de Nostre Seigneur, et sur tout dans ceux où il commença d’exercer son ministere, ils perdirent entierement l’autorité temporelle.

Ils ne purent voir cette perte, sans se souvenir de l’ancien oracle de Jacob, qui leur prédisoit que dans le temps du messie il n’y auroit plus parmi eux ni puissance, ni autorité, ni magistrature. Un de leurs plus anciens auteurs le remarque ; et il a raison d’avoûër que le sceptre n’estoit plus alors dans Juda, ni l’autorité dans les chefs du peuple, puis que la puissance publique leur estoit ostée, et que le sanedrin estant dégradé, les membres de ce grand corps n’estoient plus considerez comme juges, mais comme simples docteurs. Ainsi, selon eux-mesmes, il estoit temps que le Christ parust. Comme ils voyoient ce signe certain de la prochaine arrivée de ce nouveau roy, dont l’empire devoit s’étendre sur tous les peuples, ils crurent qu’en effet il alloit paroistre. Le bruit s’en répandit aux environs, et on fut persuadé dans tout l’Orient qu’on ne seroit pas long-temps sans voir sortir de Judée ceux qui regneroient sur toute la terre.

Tacite et Suétone rapportent ce bruit comme établi par une opinion constante, et par un ancien oracle qu’on trouvoit dans les livres sacrez du peuple juif. Josephe recite cette prophetie dans les mesmes termes, et dit comme eux qu’elle se trouvoit dans les saints livres. L’autorité de ces livres dont on avoit veû les prédictions si visiblement accomplies en tant de rencontres, estoit grande dans tout l’Orient ; et les juifs plus attentifs que les autres à observer des conjonctures qui estoient principalement écrites pour leur instruction, reconnurent le temps du messie que Jacob avoit marqué dans leur décadence. Ainsi les réflexions qu’ils firent sur leur estat furent justes ; et sans se tromper sur les temps du Christ, ils connurent qu’il devoit venir dans le temps qu’il vint en effet. Mais, ô foiblesse de l’esprit humain, et vanité source inévitable d’aveuglement ! L’humilité du sauveur cacha à ces orgueïlleux les veritables grandeurs qu’ils devoient chercher dans leur messie. Ils vouloient que ce fust un roy semblable aux rois de la terre. C’est pourquoy les flateurs du premier Herode, ébloûïs de la grandeur et de la magnificence de ce prince, qui tout tyran qu’il estoit, ne laissa pas d’enrichir la Judée, dirent qu’il estoit luy-mesme ce roy tant promis.

C’est aussi ce qui donna lieu à la secte des herodiens, dont il est tant parlé dans l’evangile, et que les payens ont connuë, puis que Perse et son scholiaste nous apprennent, qu’encore du temps de Neron, la naissance du roy Herode estoit célebrée par ses sectateurs avec la mesme solennité que le sabath. Josephe tomba dans une semblable erreur. Cét homme instruit , comme il dit luy-mesme, dans les propheties judaïques, comme estant prestre et sorti de la race sacerdotale, reconnut à la verité que la venuë de ce roy promis par Jacob convenoit aux temps d’Herode, où il nous montre luy-mesme avec tant de soin un commencement manifeste de la ruine des juifs : mais comme il ne vit rien dans sa nation qui remplist ces ambitieuses idées qu’elle avoit conceûës de son Christ, il poussa un peu plus avant le temps de la prophetie ; et l’appliquant à Vespasien, il asseûra que cét oracle de l’ecriture signifioit ce prince déclaré empereur dans la Judée .

C’est ainsi qu’il détournoit l’ecriture sainte pour autoriser sa flaterie : aveugle, qui transportoit aux estrangers l’esperance de Jacob et de Juda ; qui cherchoit en Vespasien le fils d’Abraham et de David ; et attribuoit à un prince idolatre le titre de celuy dont les lumieres devoient retirer les gentils de l’idolatrie. La conjoncture des temps le favorisoit. Mais pendant qu’il attribuoit à Vespasien ce que Jacob avoit dit du Christ, les zelez qui défendoient Jérusalem se l’attribuoient à eux-mesmes. C’est sur ce seul fondement qu’ils se promettoient l’empire du monde, comme Josephe le raconte ; plus raisonnables que luy, en ce que du moins ils ne sortoient pas de la nation pour chercher l’accomplissement des promesses faites à leurs peres. Comment n’ouvroient-ils pas les yeux au grand fruit que faisoit deslors parmi les gentils la prédication de l’evangile, et à ce nouvel empire que Jesus-Christ établissoit par toute la terre ? Qu’y avoit-il de plus beau qu’un empire où la pieté regnoit, où le vray dieu triomphoit de l’idolatrie, où la vie éternelle estoit annoncée aux nations infideles ; et l’empire mesme des Cesars n’estoit-il pas une vaine pompe à comparaison de celuy-cy ? Mais cét empire n’estoit pas assez éclatant aux yeux du monde. Qu’il faut estre desabusé des grandeurs humaines pour connoistre Jesus-Christ !

Les juifs connurent les temps ; les juifs voyoient les peuples appellez au dieu d’Abraham selon l’oracle de Jacob par Jesus-Christ et par ses disciples : et toutefois ils le méconnurent ce Jesus qui leur estoit déclaré par tant de marques. Et encore que durant sa vie et aprés sa mort il confirmast sa mission par tant de miracles, ces aveugles le rejetterent, parce qu’il n’avoit en luy que la solide grandeur destituée de tout l’appareil qui frape les sens, et qu’il venoit plustost pour condamner que pour couronner leur ambition aveugle. Et toutefois forcez par les conjonctures et les circonstances du temps, malgré leur aveuglement ils sembloient quelquefois sortir de leurs préventions. Tout se disposoit tellement du temps de Nostre Seigneur à la manifestation du messie, qu’ils soupçonnerent que Saint Jean Baptiste le pouvoit bien estre. Sa maniere de vie austere, extraordinaire, étonnante, les frapa ; et au defaut des grandeurs du monde, ils parurent vouloir d’abord se contenter de l’éclat d’une vie si prodigieuse. La vie simple et commune de Jesus-Christ rebuta ces esprits grossiers autant que superbes qui ne pouvoient estre pris que par les sens, et qui d’ailleurs éloignez d’une conversion sincere, ne vouloient rien admirer que ce qu’ils regardoient comme inimitable. De cette sorte Saint Jean Baptiste, qu’on jugea digne d’estre le Christ, n’en fut pas cru quand il montra le Christ veritable ; et Jesus-Christ, qu’il falloit imiter quand on y croyoit, parut trop humble aux juifs pour estre suivi. Cependant l’impression qu’ils avoient conceûë que le Christ devoit paroistre en ce temps, estoit si forte, qu’elle demeura prés d’un siecle parmi eux.

Ils crurent que l’accomplissement des propheties pouvoit avoir une certaine étenduë, et n’estoit pas toûjours toute renfermée dans un point précis ; de sorte que prés de cent ans il ne se parloit parmi eux que des faux Christs qui se faisoient suivre, et des faux prophetes qui les annonçoient. Les siecles précedens n’avoient rien veû de semblable ; et les juifs ne prodiguerent le nom du Christ, ni quand Judas Le Machabée remporta sur leur tyran tant de victoires, ni quand son frere Simon les affranchit du joug des gentils, ni quand le premier Hyrcan fit tant de conquestes. Les temps et les autres marques ne convenoient pas, et ce n’est que dans le siecle de Jesus-Christ qu’on a commencé à parler de tous ces messies. Les samaritains qui lisoient dans le pentateuque la prophetie de Jacob, se firent des Christs aussi-bien que les juifs, et un peu aprés Jesus-Christ ils reconnurent leur Dosithée. Simon Le Magicien de mesme païs se vantoit aussi d’estre le fils de Dieu, et Menandre son disciple se disoit le sauveur du monde. Dés le vivant de Jesus-Christ la samaritaine avoit cru que le messie alloit venir : tant il estoit constant dans la nation, et parmi tous ceux qui lisoient l’ancien oracle de Jacob, que le Christ devoit paroistre dans ces conjonctures. Quand le terme fut tellement passé qu’il n’y eût plus rien à attendre, et que les juifs eûrent veû par experience que tous les messies qu’ils avoient suivis, loin de les tirer de leurs maux, n’avoient fait que les y enfoncer davantage : alors ils furent long-temps sans qu’il parust parmi eux de nouveaux messies ; et Barchochebas est le dernier qu’ils ayent reconnu pour tel dans ces premiers temps du christianisme. Mais l’ancienne impression ne put estre entierement effacée.

Au lieu de croire que le Christ avoit paru, comme ils avoient fait encore au temps d’Adrien ; sous les Antonins ses successeurs, ils s’aviserent de dire que leur messie estoit au monde, bien qu’il ne parust pas encore, parce qu’il attendoit le prophete Elie qui devoit venir le sacrer. Ce discours estoit commun parmi eux dans le temps de saint Justin ; et nous trouvons aussi dans leur talmud la doctrine d’un de leurs maistres des plus anciens, qui disoit que le Christ estoit venu etc.

une telle réverie ne put pas entrer dans les esprits ; et les juifs contraints enfin d’avoûër que le messie n’estoit pas venu dans le temps qu’ils avoient raison de l’attendre selon leurs anciennes propheties, tomberent dans un autre abisme. Peu s’en fallut qu’ils ne renonçassent à l’esperance de leur messie qui leur manquoit dans le temps ; et plusieurs suivirent un fameux rabbin, dont les paroles se trouvent encore conservées dans le talmud. Celuy-cy voyant le terme passé de si loin, conclut que les israëlites n’avoient plus de messie à attendre, etc. a la verité cette opinion, loin de prévaloir parmi les juifs, y a esté détestée. Mais comme ils ne connoissent plus rien dans les temps qui leur sont marquez par leurs propheties, et qu’ils ne sçavent par où sortir de ce labyrinthe, ils ont fait un article de foy de cette parole que nous lisons dans le talmud, etc. : comme on voit dans une tempeste qui a écarté le vaisseau trop loin de sa route, le pilote desesperé abandonner son calcul, et aller où le mene le hazard.

Depuis ce temps, toute leur étude a esté d’éluder les propheties où le temps du Christ estoit marqué : ils ne se sont pas souciez de renverser toutes les traditions de leurs peres, pourveû qu’ils pussent oster aux chrestiens ces admirables propheties ; et ils en sont venus jusques à dire que celle de Jacob ne regardoit pas le Christ. Mais leurs anciens livres les démentent. Cette prophetie est entenduë du messie dans le talmud, et la maniere dont nous l’expliquons se trouve dans leurs paraphrases, c’est à dire dans les commentaires les plus authentiques et les plus respectez qui soient parmi eux. Nous y trouvons en propres termes que la maison et le royaume de Juda, auquel se devoit réduire un jour toute la posterité de Jacob et tout le peuple d’Israël, produiroit toûjours des juges et des magistrats , jusqu’à la venuë du messie, sous lequel il se formeroit un royaume composé de tous les peuples. C’est le témoignage que rendoient encore aux juifs dans les premiers temps du christianisme, leurs plus célebres docteurs et les plus receûs. L’ancienne tradition si ferme, et si établie ne pouvoit estre abolie d’abord ; et quoy-que les juifs n’appliquassent pas à Jesus-Christ la prophetie de Jacob, ils n’avoient encore osé nier qu’elle ne convinst au messie. Ils n’en sont venus à cét excés que long-temps aprés, et lors que pressez par les chrestiens ils ont enfin apperceû que leur propre tradition estoit contre eux.

Pour la prophetie de Daniel où la venuë du Christ estoit renfermée dans le terme de 490]ans, à compter depuis la vingtiéme année d’Artaxerxe à la longue main : comme ce terme menoit à la fin du quatriéme millenaire du monde, c’estoit aussi une tradition tres-ancienne parmi les juifs, que le messie paroistroit vers la fin de ce quatriéme millenaire, et environ deux mille ans aprés Abraham. Un Elie, dont le nom est grand parmi les juifs, quoyque ce ne soit pas le prophete, l’avoit ainsi enseigné avant la naissance de Jesus-Christ ; et la tradition s’en est conservée dans le livre du talmud. Vous avez veû ce terme accompli à la venuë de Nostre Seigneur, puis qu’il a paru en effet environ deux mille ans aprés Abraham, et vers l’an 4000 du monde. Cependant les juifs ne l’ont pas connu ; et frustrez de leur attente, ils ont dit que leurs pechez avoient retardé le messie qui devoit venir. Mais cependant nos dates sont asseûrées de leur aveu propre ; et c’est un trop grand aveuglement de faire dépendre des hommes un terme que Dieu a marqué si précisément dans Daniel. C’est encore pour eux un grand embarras de voir que ce prophete fasse aller le temps du Christ avant celuy de la ruine de Jérusalem ; de sorte que ce dernier temps estant accompli, celuy qui le précede le doit estre aussi.

Josephe s’est icy trompé trop grossiérement. Il a bien compté les semaines qui devoient estre suivies de la desolation du peuple juif ; et les voyant accomplies dans le temps que Tite mit le siége devant Jérusalem, il ne douta point que le moment de la perte de cette ville ne fust arrivé. Mais il ne considera pas que cette desolation devoit estre précedée de la venuë du Christ et de sa mort ; de sorte qu’il n’entendit que la moitié de la prophetie.

Les juifs qui sont venus aprés luy ont voulu suppléer à ce defaut. Ils nous ont forgé un Agrippa descendu d’Hérode, que les romains, disent-ils, ont fait mourir un peu devant la ruine de Jérusalem ; et ils veulent que cét Agrippa, Christ par son titre de roy, soit le Christ dont il est parlé dans Daniel : nouvelle preuve de leur aveuglement. Car outre que cét Agrippa ne peut estre ni le juste, ni le saint des saints, ni la fin des propheties, tel que devoit estre le Christ que Daniel marquoit en ce lieu ; outre que le meurtre de cét Agrippa, dont les juifs estoient innocens, ne pouvoit pas estre la cause de leur desolation, comme devoit estre la mort du Christ de Daniel : ce que disent icy les juifs est une fable. Cét Agrippa descendu d’Hérode fut toûjours du parti des romains : il fut toûjours bien traité par leurs empereurs, et regna dans un canton de la Judée long-temps aprés la prise de Jerusalem, comme l’atteste Josephe et les autres contemporains.

Ainsi tout ce qu’inventent les juifs pour éluder les propheties, les confond. Eux-mesmes ils ne se fient pas à des inventions si grossieres, et leur meilleure défense est dans cette loy qu’ils ont établie de ne supputer plus les jours du messie. Par là ils ferment les yeux volontairement à la verité, et renoncent aux propheties où le Saint Esprit a luy-mesme compté les années : mais pendant qu’ils y renoncent, ils les accomplissent, et font voir la verité de ce qu’elles disent de leur aveuglement et de leur chute.

Qu’ils répondent ce qu’ils voudront aux propheties : la desolation qu’elles prédisoient leur est arrivée dans le temps marqué ; l’évenement est plus fort que toutes leurs subtilitez ; et si le Christ n’est venu dans cette fatale conjoncture, les prophetes en qui ils esperent les ont trompez. Et pour achever de les convaincre, remarquez deux circonstances qui ont accompagné leur chute et la venuë du sauveur du monde : l’une, que la succession des pontifes perpetuelle et inalterable depuis Aaron, finit alors ; l’autre, que la distinction des tribus et des familles toûjours conservée jusqu’à ce temps y perit de leur aveu propre.

Cette distinction estoit necessaire jusques au temps du messie. De Levi devoient naistre les ministres des choses sacrées. D’Aaron devoient sortir les prestres et les pontifes. De Juda devoit sortir le messie mesme. Si la distinction des familles n’eust subsisté jusqu’à la ruine de Jérusalem, et jusqu’à la venuë de Jesus-Christ, les sacrifices judaïques auroient peri devant le temps, et David eust esté frustré de la gloire d’estre reconnu pour le pere du messie. Le messie est-il arrivé ? Le sacerdoce nouveau, selon l’ordre de Melchisedech, a-t-il commencé en sa personne, et la nouvelle royauté qui n’estoit pas de ce monde a-t-elle paru ? On n’a plus besoin d’Aaron, ni de Levi, ni de Juda, ni de David, ni de leurs familles.

Aaron n’est plus necessaire dans un temps où les sacrifices devoient cesser selon Daniel. La maison de David et de Juda a accompli sa destinée lors que le Christ de Dieu en est sorti ; et comme si les juifs renonçoient eux-mesmes à leur esperance, ils oublient précisément en ce temps la succession des familles jusques alors si soigneusement et si religieusement retenuë.

N’omettons pas une des marques de la venuë du messie, et peut-estre la principale si nous la sçavons bien entendre, quoy-qu’elle fasse le scandale et l’horreur des juifs. C’est la rémission des pechez annoncée au nom d’un sauveur souffrant, d’un sauveur humilié et obéïssant jusqu’à la mort. Daniel avoit marqué parmi ses semaines, la semaine mysterieuse que nous avons observée, où le Christ devoit estre immolé, où l’alliance devoit estre confirmée par sa mort, où les anciens sacrifices devoient perdre leur vertu. Joignons Daniel avec Isaïe : nous trouverons tout le fond d’un si grand mystere ; nous verrons l’homme de douleurs, etc. ouvrez les yeux, incredules : n’est-il pas vray que la rémission des pechez vous a esté preschée au nom de Jesus-Christ crucifié ? S’estoit-on jamais avisé d’un tel mystere ? Quelqu’autre que Jesus-Christ, ou devant luy, ou aprés, s’est-il glorifié de laver les pechez par son sang ? Se sera-t-il fait crucifier exprés pour aquerir un vain honneur, et accomplir en luy-mesme une si funeste prophetie ?

Il faut se taire, et adorer dans l’evangile une doctrine qui ne pourroit pas mesme venir dans la pensée d’aucun homme, si elle n’estoit veritable. L’embarras des juifs est extréme dans cét endroit : ils trouvent dans leurs ecritures trop de passages où il est parlé des humiliations de leur messie. Que deviendront donc ceux où il est parlé de sa gloire et de ses triomphes ? Le dénoûëment naturel est, qu’il viendra aux triomphes par les combats, et à la gloire par les souffrances. Chose incroyable ! Les juifs ont mieux aimé mettre deux messies. Nous voyons dans leur talmud et dans d’autres livres d’une pareille antiquité, qu’ils attendent un messie souffrant, et un messie plein de gloire ; l’un mort et ressuscité ; l’autre toûjours heureux et toûjours vainqueur ; l’un à qui conviennent tous les passages où il est parlé de foiblesse ; l’autre à qui conviennent tous ceux où il est parlé de grandeur ; l’un enfin fils de Joseph, car on n’a pû luy denier un des caracteres de Jesus-Christ qui a esté réputé fils de Joseph ; et l’autre fils de David : sans jamais vouloir entendre que ce messie fils de David devoit, selon David, boire du torrent avant que de lever la teste ; c’est à dire, estre affligé avant que d’estre triomphant , comme le dit luy-mesme le fils de David. Etc.

Au reste, si nous entendons du messie ce grand passage où Isaïe nous represente si vivement l’homme de douleurs frapé pour nos pechez , et défiguré comme un lepreux , nous sommes encore soustenus dans cette explication aussi-bien que dans toutes les autres par l’ancienne tradition des juifs ; et malgré leurs préventions, le chapitre tant de fois cité de leur talmud nous enseigne que ce lepreux chargé des pechez du peuple sera le messie . Les douleurs du messie qui luy seront causées par nos pechez, sont célebres dans le mesme endroit et dans les autres livres des juifs. Il y est souvent parlé de l’entrée aussi humble que glorieuse qu’il devoit faire dans Jérusalem monté sur un asne, et cette célebre prophetie de Zacharie luy est appliquée. De quoy les juifs ont-ils à se plaindre ? Tout leur estoit marqué en termes précis dans leurs prophetes : leur ancienne tradition avoit conservé l’explication naturelle de ces célebres propheties ; et il n’y a rien de plus juste que ce reproche que leur fait le sauveur du monde : hypocrites, vous sçavez juger par les vents et par ce qui vous paroist dans le ciel, si le temps sera serein ou pluvieux ; et vous ne sçavez pas connoistre à tant de signes qui vous sont donnez, le temps où vous estes ! Concluons donc que les juifs ont eû veritablement raison de dire que tous les termes de la venuë du messie sont passez . Juda n’est plus un royaume ni un peuple : d’autres peuples ont reconnu le messie qui devoit estre envoyé. Jesus-Christ a esté montré aux gentils : à ce signe, ils ont accouru au dieu d’Abraham, et la benediction de ce patriarche s’est répanduë par toute la terre.

L’homme de douleurs a esté presché, et la rémission des pechez a esté annoncée par sa mort. Toutes les semaines se sont écoulées ; la desolation du peuple et du sanctuaire, juste punition de la mort du Christ, a eû son dernier accomplissement ; enfin le Christ a paru avec tous les caracteres que la tradition des juifs y reconnoissoit, et leur incredulité n’a plus d’excuse.

Aussi voyons-nous depuis ce temps des marques indubitables de leur réprobation. Aprés Jesus-Christ ils n’ont fait que s’enfoncer de plus en plus dans l’ignorance et dans la misere, d’où la seule extrémité de leurs maux, et la honte d’avoir esté si souvent en proye à l’erreur les fera sortir, ou plustost la bonté de Dieu, quand le temps arresté par sa providence pour punir leur ingratitude et dompter leur orgueïl sera accompli. Cependant ils demeurent la risée des peuples, et l’objet de leur aversion, sans qu’une si longue captivité les fasse revenir à eux, encore qu’elle deust suffire pour les convaincre. Car enfin, comme leur dit Saint Jerosme, etc. C’est ce que disoit Saint Jerosme. L’argument s’est fortifié depuis, et douze cens ans ont esté ajoustez à la desolation du peuple juif. Disons-luy donc au lieu de quatre cens ans que seize siecles ont veû durer sa captivité sans que son joug devienne plus leger. Etc.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Gen.49.10 — The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
  2. ↩Dan.9.26 — And after the sixty-two weeks, the anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the city and the sanctuary shall be destroyed by the people of the prince who is to come. His end shall come in a flood, and until the end of the war, desolations are decreed.
  3. ↩Gen.49.10 — The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
  4. ↩Gen.49.10 — The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
  5. ↩Gen.49.10 — The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
  6. ↩Gen.49.10 — The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
  7. ↩Isa.2.2-Isa.2.3;Dan.2.44 — And it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established at the top of the mountains, and lifted up above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. Isa.2.3 — Many peoples will go and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Dan.2.44 — And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and its dominion shall not be left to another people. It shall break in pieces and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
  8. ↩John.18.31 — Pilate therefore said to them, "Take him yourselves, and according to your law judge him." The Jews said to him, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death."
  9. ↩Gen.49.10 — The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
  10. ↩Gen.49.10 — The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
  11. ↩Gen.49.10 — The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
  12. ↩Gen.49.10 — The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
  13. ↩Gen.49.10 — The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
  14. ↩John.1.19-John.1.25;Luke.3.15 — And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" John.1.20 — He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, 'I am not the Christ.' John.1.21 — And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." John.1.22 — So they said to him, "Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" John.1.23 — He said, "I am a voice of one calling in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord, just as Isaiah the prophet said." John.1.24 — Now those who had been sent were from the Pharisees. John.1.25 — They questioned him and said to him, "Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" Luke.3.15 — As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he was the Christ,
  15. ↩John.1.29-John.1.36 — The next day he sees Jesus coming toward him and says, "Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" John.1.30 — This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.' John.1.31 — And I myself did not know him, but in order that he might be revealed to Israel, I came baptizing with water. John.1.32 — And John testified, saying, 'I have seen the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.' John.1.33 — And I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'The one on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining — this is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' John.1.34 — And I have seen and have testified that this one is the Son of God. John.1.35 — The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples. John.1.36 — And looking at Jesus as he walked by, he said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God.'
  16. ↩Mal.3.23-Mal.3.24;Matt.17.10-Matt.17.11 — Behold, I am sending to you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. Mal.3.24 — He will turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse. Matt.17.10 — And his disciples asked him, saying, 'Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?' Matt.17.11 — He answered, "Elijah does come and will restore all things."
  17. ↩Dan.9.24 — Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city: to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.
  18. ↩Gen.49.10 — The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
  19. ↩John.18.36 — Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from there."
  20. ↩Phil.2.8 — And he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
  21. ↩Gen.49.10 — The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩l'attente des peuples is the traditional messianic reading of Gen 49:10 (often 'expectation/hope of the nations'); kept as 'expectation of the peoples' to preserve Bossuet's gloss before his explanatory expansion.
  2. 2 ↩elle refers to la puissance de vie et de mort (the power of life and death) from the previous sentence; rendered explicitly as 'that power' for clarity.
  3. 3 ↩présidens: Bossuet's term for the Roman provincial governors (prefects/procurators) sent by the emperors; rendered here as "presidents" to stay close to the source surface, in the older sense of appointed governors.
  4. 4 ↩« Sceptre... dans Juda » continues the Genesis 49:10 wording (Non auferetur sceptrum de Iuda). « Docteurs » here means legal/religious teachers, not physicians.
  5. 5 ↩French zelez is the Zealots (the wartime faction defending Jerusalem), not generic 'zealous people'.
  6. 6 ↩Barchochebas rendered as the conventional modern form Bar Kokhba (Simon bar Kokhba).
  7. 7 ↩Source ends with 'etc.'; Bossuet truncates the rabbi's conclusion as known or continued elsewhere.
  8. 8 ↩Source ends with 'etc.'; the Talmudic saying itself is not quoted in this sentence.
  9. 9 ↩paraphrases here points to the Targums (Aramaic interpretive paraphrases of Scripture), which Bossuet equates with their most authentic commentaries.
  10. 10 ↩Source reading '490]ans' treated as '490 ans' (OCR/print artifact).
  11. 11 ↩saint des saints renders Daniel's 'most holy' / Holy of Holies (Dan 9:24); kept as a title-like messianic epithet rather than a temple-space paraphrase.
  12. 12 ↩loy is rendered as 'rule' (a self-imposed ban), not civil law; supputer = reckon/calculate (chronological computation of messianic times).
  13. 13 ↩vertu here means the efficacy/force of the old sacrifices, not moral virtue.
  14. 14 ↩Se sera-t-il fait crucifier is a rhetorical future perfect; rendered as ‘Would he have had himself crucified’ to keep the incredulous force of the challenge.
  15. 15 ↩Bossuet reports a two-messiah tradition (suffering son of Joseph vs. glorious son of David) as found in later Jewish sources; the final clause glosses Ps 110:7 as affliction before triumph.
  16. 16 ↩"termes" here means fixed terms/appointed times or deadlines for the Messiah's coming, not verbal expressions.
  17. 17 ↩Source ends in 'etc.': Jerome's cited words are abbreviated or omitted in this witness.
  18. 18 ↩'Disons-luy' addresses Jerome (or his argument) in the second person singular; the four hundred years are the figure Jerome could already cite, updated by Bossuet to sixteen centuries.
  19. 19 ↩Standalone 'Etc.' marks further omitted continuation in the source witness.

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