That the Gentiles Should Rather Believe in Christ.

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews — Cyprian

In Genesis: "And the Lord God said unto Abraham, Go out from thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, and go into that land which I shall show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and I will magnify thy name; and thou shalt be blessed: and I will bless him that blesseth thee, and I will curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed." [3894] On this same point in Genesis: "And Isaac blessed Jacob. [3895] Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a plentiful field which the Lord hath blessed: and God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fertility of the earth, abundance of corn, and wine, and oil: and peoples shall obey thee, and princes shall worship thee: and thou shalt be lord over thy brother, and the sons of thy father shall worship thee; and he that curseth thee shall be cursed, and he that blesseth thee shall be blessed." [3896] On this matter too in Genesis: "But when Joseph saw that his father placed his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it seemed displeasing to him: and Joseph laid hold of his father's hand, to lift it from the head of Ephraim on to the head of Manasseh. Moreover, Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: this is my first-born; place thy right hand upon his head. But he would not, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: and he also shall be a people, and he shall be exalted; but his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations." [3897] Moreover in Genesis: "Judah, thy brethren shall praise thee: thine hand shall be upon the back of thine enemies; the sons of thy father shall worship thee. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the slender twig, [3898] my son, thou hast ascended: thou layedst down and sleepedst as a lion, and as a lion's whelp. Who shall stir him up? There shalt not fail a prince from Judah, and a leader from his loins, until those things entrusted to him shall come; and he is the hope of the nations: binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the branch of the vine; [3899] he shall wash his garments in wine, and his clothing in the blood of the grape: terrible are his eyes with wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk." [3900] Hence in Numbers it is written concerning our people: "Behold, the people shall rise up as a lion-like people." [3901] In Deuteronomy: "Ye Gentiles shall be for the head; but this unbelieving people shall be for the tail." [3902] Also in Jeremiah: "Hear the sound of the trumpet. And they said, We will not hear: for this cause the nations shall hear, and they who shall feed their cattle among them." [3903] In the seventeenth Psalm: "Thou shalt establish me the head of the nations: a people whom I have not known have served me: at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed me." [3904] Concerning this very thing the Lord says in Jeremiah: "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou wentest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee, and established thee as a prophet among the nations." [3905] Also in Isaiah: "Behold, I have manifested him for a witness to the nations, a prince and a commander to the peoples." [3906] Also in the same: "Nations which have not known Thee shall call upon Thee; and peoples which were ignorant of Thee shall flee to Thee." [3907] In the same, moreover: "And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall rise to rule in all the nations; in Him shall the Gentiles hope: and His rest shall be honour." [3908] In the same again: "The land of Zebulon, and the land of Nephtalim, by the way of the sea, and ye others who inhabit the maritime places, and beyond Jordan [3909] of the nations. People that walk in darkness, behold ye a great light; ye who dwell in the region of the shadow of death, the light shall shine upon you." [3910] Also in the same: "Thus saith the Lord God to Christ my Lord, whose right hand I hold, that the nations may hear Him; and I will break asunder the strength of kings, I will open before Him gates; and cities shall not be shut." [3911] Also in the same: "I come to gather together all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory. And I will send out over them a standard, and I will send those that are preserved among them to the nations which are afar off, which have not heard my name nor seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory to the nations." [3912] Also in the same: "And in all these things they are not converted; therefore He shall lift up a standard to the nations which are afar, and He will draw them from the end of the earth." [3913] Also in the same: "Those who had not been told of Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand." [3914] Also in the same: "I have been made manifest to those who seek me not: I have been formal of those who asked not after me. I said, Lo, here am I, to a nation that has not called upon my name." [3915] Of this same thing, in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul says: "It was necessary that the word of God should first be shown to you; but since ye put it from you, and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles: for thus said the Lord by the Scriptures, Behold, I have set Thee a light among the nations, that Thou shouldest be for salvation even to the ends of the earth." [3916]

Footnotes:

[3894] Genesis 11:1-3.

[3895] The quotation in the Oxford edition begins from this point.

[3896] Genesis 27:27-29.

[3897] Genesis 48:17-19. The whole of this quotation is wanting in more than one codex.

[3898] "Frutice." The Oxford translator has here, without any authority as it appears, from the text, adopted the reading of the Vulgate, "ad prædam." Cyprian has used the LXX., reading apparently, ek blastou. The Hebrew mtrph gives a colour to either reading. See Gesenius, Lex. in voce mrph. [Elucidation X.]

[3899] Original, "ad cilicium;" LXX. te heliki, "the tendril of the vine;" Oxford trans. "the choice vine."

[3900] Genesis 49:8-12.

[3901] Numbers 23:14.

[3902] Deuteronomy 28:44.

[3903] Jeremiah 6:18.

[3904] Psalm 18:43, 44.

[3905] Jeremiah 1:5.

[3906] Isaiah 55:4.

[3907] Isaiah 55:5.

[3908] Isaiah 11:10.

[3909] Oxford edition adds "Galilee."

[3910] Isaiah 9:1, 2.