|
Blaise Pascal
Pensées
The translation is that
of W. F. Trotter (William Finlayson) and was published in New York by Harvard
Classics, 1909-1914.
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contents page]
SECTION IX
PERPETUITY
589. On the fact that the
Christian religion is not the only religion.—So far is this from being a
reason for believing that it is not the true one that, on the contrary, it
makes us see that it is so.
590. Men must be sincere in
all religions; true heathens, true Jews, true Christians.
591. J. C.
Heathens | Mahomet
\ /
Ignorance of God
592. The falseness of other
religions.—They have no witnesses. Jews have. God defies other religions to
produce such signs: Isaiah 43. 9; 44. 8.
593. History of China.—I
believe only the histories, whose witnesses got themselves killed.
Which is the more credible of
the two, Moses or China?
It is not a question of seeing
this summarily. I tell you there is in it something to blind, and something
to enlighten.
By this one word I destroy all
your reasoning. “But China obscures,” say you; and I answer, “China obscures,
but there is clearness to be found; seek it.”
Thus all that you say makes
for one of the views and not at all against the other.
So this serves, and does no
harm.
We must, then, see this in
detail; we must put the papers on the table.
594. Against the history of
China.—The historians of Mexico, the five suns, of which the last is only
eight hundred years old.
The difference between a book
accepted by a nation and one which makes a nation.
595. Mahomet was without
authority. His reasons, then, should have been very strong, having only their
own force. What does he say, then, that we must believe him?
596. The Psalms are chanted
throughout the whole world.
Who renders testimony to
Mahomet? Himself. Jesus Christ desires His own testimony to be as nothing.
The quality of witnesses
necessitates their existence always and everywhere; and he, miserable
creature, is alone.
597. Against Mahomet.—The
Koran is not more of Mahomet than the Gospel is of Saint Matthew, for it is
cited by many authors from age to age. Even its very enemies, Celsus and
Porphyry, never denied it.
The Koran says Saint Matthew
was an honest man. Therefore Mahomet was a false prophet for calling honest
men wicked, or for not agreeing with what they have said of Jesus Christ.
598. It is not by that which
is obscure in Mahomet, and which may be interpreted in a mysterious sense,
that I would have him judged, but by what is clear, as his paradise and the
rest. In that he is ridiculous. And since what is clear is ridiculous, it is
not right to take his obscurities for mysteries.
It is not the same with the
Scripture. I agree that there are in it obscurities as strange as those of
Mahomet; but there are admirably clear passages, and the prophecies are
manifestly fulfilled. The cases are, therefore, not on a par. We must not
confound and put on one level things which only resemble each other in their
obscurity, and not in the clearness, which requires us to reverence the
obscurities.
599. The difference between
Jesus Christ and Mahomet.—Mahomet was not foretold; Jesus Christ was
foretold.
Mahomet slew; Jesus Christ
caused His own to be slain.
Mahomet forbade reading; the
Apostles ordered reading.
In fact, the two are so
opposed that, if Mahomet took the way to succeed from a worldly point of
view, Jesus Christ, from the same point of view, took the way to perish. And
instead of concluding that, since Mahomet succeeded, Jesus Christ might well
have succeeded, we ought to say that, since Mahomet succeeded, Jesus Christ
should have failed.
600. Any man can do what
Mahomet has done; for he performed no miracles, he was not foretold. No man
can do what Christ has done.
601. The heathen religion has
no foundation at the present day. It is said once to have had a foundation by
the oracles which spoke. But what are the books which assure us of this? Are
they so worthy of belief on account of the virtue of their authors? Have they
been preserved with such care that we can be sure that they have not been
meddled with?
The Mahometan religion has for
a foundation the Koran and Mahomet. But has this prophet, who was to be the
last hope of the world, been foretold? What sign has he that every other man
has not who chooses to call himself a prophet? What miracles does he himself
say that he has done? What mysteries has he taught, even according to his own
tradition? What was the morality, what the happiness held out by him?
The Jewish religion must be
differently regarded in the tradition of the Holy Bible and in the tradition
of the people. Its morality and happiness are absurd in the tradition of the
people, but are admirable in that of the Holy Bible. (And all religion is the
same; for the Christian religion is very different in the Holy Bible and in
the casuists.) The foundation is admirable; it is the most ancient book in
the world, and the most authentic; and whereas Mahomet, in order to make his
own book continue in existence, forbade men to read it, Moses, for the same
reason, ordered every one to read his.
Our religion is so divine that
another divine religion has only been the foundation of it.
602. Order.—To see what is
clear and indisputable in the whole state of the Jews.
603. The Jewish religion is
wholly divine in its authority, its duration, its perpetuity, its morality,
its doctrine, and its effects.
604. The only science contrary
to common sense and human nature is that alone which has always existed among
men.
605. The only religion
contrary to nature, to common sense, and to our pleasure, is that alone which
has always existed.
606. No religion but our own
has taught that man is born in sin. No sea of philosophers has said this.
Therefore none have declared the truth.
No sect or religion has always
existed on earth, but the Christian religion.
607. Whoever judges of the
Jewish religion by its coarser forms will misunderstand it. It is to be seen
in the Holy Bible, and in the tradition of the prophets, who have made it
plain enough that they did not interpret the law according to the letter. So
our religion is divine in the Gospel, in the Apostles, and in tradition; but
it is absurd in those who tamper with it.
The Messiah, according to the
carnal Jews, was to be a great temporal prince. Jesus Christ, according to
carnal Christians, has come to dispense us from the love of God and to give
us sacraments which shall do everything without our help. Such is not the
Christian religion, nor the Jewish. True Jews and true Christians have always
expected a Messiah who should make them love God and by that love triumph
over their enemies.
608. The carnal Jews hold a
midway place between Christians and heathens. The heathens know not God, and
love the world only. The Jews know the true God, and love the world only. The
Christians know the true God, and love not the world. Jews and heathens love
the same good. Jews and Christians know the same God.
The Jews were of two kinds;
the first had only heathen affections, the other had Christian affections.
609. There are two kinds of
men in each religion: among the heathen, worshippers of beasts and the
worshippers of the one only God of natural religion; among the Jews, the
carnal, and the spiritual, who were the Christians of the old law; among
Christians, the coarser-minded, who are the Jews of the new law. The carnal
Jews looked for a carnal Messiah; the coarser Christians believe that the
Messiah has dispensed them from the love of God; true Jews and true
Christians worship a Messiah who makes them love God.
610. To show that the true
Jews and the true Christians have but the same religion.—The religion of the
Jews seemed to consist essentially in the fatherhood of Abraham, in
circumcision, in sacrifices, in ceremonies, in the Ark, in the temple, in
Jerusalem, and, finally, in the law, and in the covenant with Moses.
I say that it consisted in
none of those things, but only in the love of God, and that God disregarded
all the other things.
That God did not accept the
posterity of Abraham.
That the Jews were to be
punished like strangers, if they transgressed. Deut. 8. 19: “If thou do at
all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, I testify against you
this day that ye shall surely perish, as the nations which the Lord destroyeth
before your face.”
That strangers, if they loved
God, were to be received by Him as the Jews. Isaiah 56. 3: “Let not the
stranger say, ‘The Lord will not receive me.’ The strangers who join
themselves unto the Lord to serve Him and love Him, will I bring unto my holy
mountain, and accept therein sacrifices, for mine house is a house of
prayer.”
That the true Jews considered
their merit to be from God only, and not from Abraham. Isaiah 63. 16:
“Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel
acknowledge us not. Thou art our Father and our Redeemer.”
Moses himself told them that
God would not accept persons. Deut. 10. 17: “God,” said he, “regardeth
neither persons nor sacrifices.”
The Sabbath was only a sign,
Exod. 31. 13; and in memory of the escape from Egypt, Deut. 5. 19. Therefore
it is no longer necessary, since Egypt must be forgotten.
Circumcision was only a sign,
Gen. 17. 11. And thence it came to pass that, being in the desert, they were
not circumcised, because they could not be confounded with other peoples; and
after Jesus Christ came, it was no longer necessary.
That the circumcision of the
heart is commanded. Deut. 10. 16; Jeremiah 4. 4: “Be ye circumcised in heart;
take away the superfluities of your heart, and harden yourselves not. For
your God is a mighty God, strong and terrible, who accepteth not persons.”
That God said He would one day
do it. Deut. 30. 6: “God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy
seed, that thou mayest love Him with all thine heart.”
That the uncircumcised in
heart shall be judged. Jeremiah 9. 26: For God will judge the uncircumcised
peoples, and all the people of Israel, because he is “uncircumcised in
heart.”
That the external is of no
avail apart from the internal. Joel 2. 13: Scindite corda vestra,103 etc.; Isaiah 58. 3, 4, etc.
The love of God is enjoined in
the whole of Deuteronomy. Deut. 30. 19: “I call heaven and earth to record
that I have set before you life and death, that you should choose life, and
love God, and obey Him, for God is your life.”
That the Jews, for lack of
that love, should be rejected for their offences, and the heathen chosen in
their stead. Hosea 1. 10; Deut. 32. 20. “I will hide my face from them, I
will see what their end shall be, for they are a very froward generation,
children in whom is no faith. have moved me to jealousy with that which is
not God... and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a
people... and with a foolish nation.” Isaiah 65. 1.
That temporal goods are false,
and that the true good is to be united to God. Psalm 143. 15.
That their feasts are
displeasing to God. Amos 5. 21.
That the sacrifices of the
Jews displeased God. Isaiah 66. 1-3; 1. 11; Jer. 6. 20; David, Miserere.104 Even on the part of the good,
Expectavi.105(2) Psalm 49. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14.
104 Ps. 9. 14. “Have mercy.”
105(2) Is. 5. 7. “He has looked
for.”
That He has established them
only for their hardness. Micah, admirably, 6; I Kings 15. 22; Hosea 6. 6.
That the sacrifices of the
Gentiles will be accepted of God, and that God will take no pleasure in the
sacrifices of the Jews. Malachi 1. 11.
That God will make a new
covenant with the Messiah, and the old will be annulled. Jer. 31. 31. Mandata
non bona.106
106 Ezek. 20. 25. Praecepta non
bona. “Statutes that were not good.”
That the old things will be
forgotten. Isaiah 43. 18, 19; 65. 17, 10
That the Ark will no longer be
remembered. Jer. 3. 15, 16
That the temple should be
rejected. Jer 7. 12, 13, 14.
That the sacrifices should be
rejected, and other pure sacrifices established. Malachi 1. 11.
That the order of Aaron’s
priesthood should be rejected, and that of Melchizedek introduced by the
Messiah. Ps. Dixit Dominus.
That this priesthood should be
eternal. Ibid.
That Jerusalem should be
rejected, and Rome admitted, Ibid.
That the name of the Jews
should be rejected, and a new name given. Isaiah 65. 15.
That this last name should be
more excellent than that of the Jews, and eternal. Isaiah 56. 5.
That the Jews should be
without prophets (Amos), without a king, without princes, without sacrifice,
without an idol.
That the Jews should, nevertheless,
always remain a people. Jer. 31. 36
611. Republic.—The Christian
republic—and even the Jewish—has only had God for ruler, as Philo the Jew
notices, On Monarchy.
When they fought, it was for
God only; their chief hope was in God only; they considered their towns as
belonging to God only, and kept them for God. I Chron. 19. 13.
612. Gen. 17. 7. Statuam
pactum meum inter me et te foedere sempiterno... us sim Deus tuus...107
Et tu ergo custodies pactum
meum.108(2)
107 “I will establish my covenant
between me and Thee for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto Thee.”
108(2) Gen. 17. 9. “Thou shalt
keep my covenant therefore.”
Perpetuity.—That religion has
always existed on earth which consists in believing that man has fallen from
a state of glory and of communion with God into a state of sorrow, penitence,
and estrangement from God, but that after this life we shall be restored by a
Messiah who should have come. All things have passed away, and this has
endured, for which all things are.
Men have in the first age of
the world been carried away into every kind of debauchery, and yet there were
saints, as Enoch, Lamech, and others, who waited patiently for the Christ
promised from the beginning of the world. Noah saw the wickedness of men at
its height; and he was held worthy to save the world in his person, by the
hope of the Messiah of whom he was the type. Abraham was surrounded by
idolaters, when God made known to him the mystery of the Messiah, whom he
welcomed from afar. In the time of Isaac and Jacob, abomination was spread
over all the earth; but these saints lived in faith; and Jacob, dying and
blessing his children, cried in a transport which made him break off his
discourse, “I await, O my God, the Saviour whom Thou hast promised. Salutare
tuum expectabo, Domine.”109 The Egyptians were infected both with idolatry and magic; the
very people of God were led astray by their example. Yet Moses and others
believed Him whom they saw not, and worshipped Him, looking to the eternal
gifts which He was preparing for them.
109 Gen. 49. 18. “I have waited
for thy salvation, O Lord.”
The Greeks and Latins then set
up false deities; the poets made a hundred different theologies, while the
philosophers separated into a thousand different sects; and yet in the heart
of Judaea there were always chosen men who foretold the coming of this
Messiah, which was known to them alone.
He came at length in the
fullness of time, and time has since witnessed the birth of so many schisms
and heresies, so many political revolutions, so many changes in all things;
yet this Church, which worships Him who has always been worshipped, has
endured uninterruptedly. It is a wonderful, incomparable, and altogether
divine fact that this religion, which has always endured, has always been
attacked. It has been a thousand times on the eve of universal destruction,
and every time it has been in that state, God has restored it by
extraordinary acts of His power. This is astonishing, as also that it has
preserved itself without yielding to the will of tyrants. For it is not
strange that a State endures, when its laws are sometimes made to give way to
necessity, but that... (See the passage indicated in Montaigne.)110
614. States would perish if
they did not often make their laws
give way to necessity. But religion has never suffered this, or
practised it. Indeed, there must be these compromises or miracles.
It is not strange to be saved by yieldings, and this is not strictly
self-preservation; besides, in the end they perish entirely. None
has endured a thousand years. But the fact that this religion has
always maintained itself, inflexible as it is, proves its divinity.
615. Whatever may be said, it
must be admitted that the Christian religion has something astonishing in it.
Some will say, “This is because you were born in it.” Far from it; I stiffen
myself against it for this very reason, for fear this prejudice bias me. But,
although I am born in it, I cannot help finding it so.
616. Perpetuity.—The Messiah
has always been believed in. The tradition from Adam was fresh in Noah and in
Moses. Since then the prophets have foretold him, while at the same time
foretelling other things, which, being from time to time fulfilled in the
sight of men, showed the truth of their mission, and consequently that of
their promises touching the Messiah. Jesus Christ performed miracles, and the
Apostles also, who converted all the heathen; and all the prophecies being
thereby fulfilled, the Messiah is for ever proved.
617. Perpetuity.—Let us
consider that since the beginning of the world the expectation of worship of
the Messiah has existed uninterruptedly; that there have been found men who
said that God had revealed to them that a Redeemer was to be born, who should
save His people; that Abraham came afterwards, saying that he had had
revelation that the Messiah was to spring from him by a son, whom he should
have; that Jacob declared that, of his twelve sons, the Messiah would spring
from Judah; that Moses and the prophets then came to declare the time and the
manner of His coming; that they said their law was only temporary till that
of the Messiah, that it should endure till then, but that the other should
last for ever; that thus either their law, or that of the Messiah, of which
it was the promise, would be always upon the earth; that, in fact, it has
always endured; that at last Jesus Christ came with all the circumstances
foretold. This is wonderful.
618. This is positive fact.
While all philosophers separate into different sects, there is found in one
corner of the world the most ancient people in it, declaring that all the
world is in error, that God has revealed to them the truth, that they will
always exist on the earth. In fact, all other seas come to an end, this one
still endures, and has done so for four thousand years.
They declare that they hold
from their ancestors that man has fallen from communion with God, and is
entirely estranged from God, but that He has promised to redeem them; that
this doctrine shall always exist on the earth; that their law has a double
signification; that during sixteen hundred years they have had people, whom
they believed prophets, foretelling both the time and the manner; that four
hundred years after they were scattered everywhere, because Jesus Christ was
to be everywhere announced; that Jesus Christ came in the manner, and at the
time foretold; that the Jews have since been scattered abroad under a curse
and, nevertheless, still exist.
619. I see the Christian
religion founded upon a preceding religion, and this is what I find as a
fact.
I do not here speak of the
miracles of Moses, of Jesus Christ, and of the Apostles, because they do not
at first seem convincing, and because I only wish here to put in evidence all
those foundations of the Christian religion which are beyond doubt and which
cannot be called in question by any person whatsoever. It is certain that we
see in many places of the world a peculiar people, separated from all other
peoples of the world and called the Jewish people.
I see then a crowd of
religions in many parts of the world and in all times; but their morality
cannot please me, nor can their proofs convince me. Thus I should equally
have rejected the religion of Mahomet and of China, of the ancient Romans and
of the Egyptians, for the sole reason that none having more marks of truth
than another, nor anything which should necessarily persuade me, reason
cannot incline to one rather than the other.
But, in thus considering this
changeable and singular variety of morals and beliefs at different times, I
find in one corner of the world a peculiar people, separated from all other
peoples on earth, the most ancient of all, and whose histories are earlier by
many generations than the most ancient which we possess.
I find, then, this great and
numerous people, sprung from a single man, who worship one God and guide
themselves by a law which they say that they obtained from His own hand. They
maintain that they are the only people in the world to whom God has revealed
His mysteries; that all men are corrupt and in disgrace with God; that they
are all abandoned to their senses and their own imagination, whence come the
strange errors and continual changes which happen among them, both of
religions and of morals, whereas they themselves remain firm in their
conduct; but that God will not leave other nations in this darkness for ever;
that there will come a Saviour for all; that they are in the world to
announce Him to men; that they are expressly formed to be forerunners and
heralds of this great event and to summon all nations to join with them in
the expectation of this Saviour.
To meet with this people is
astonishing to me, and seems to me worthy of attention. I look at the law
which they boast of having obtained from God, and I find it admirable. It is
the first law of all and is of such a kind that, even before the term law was
in currency among the Greeks, it had, for nearly a thousand years earlier,
been uninterruptedly accepted and observed by the Jews. I likewise think it
strange that the first law of the world happens to be the most perfect; so
that the greatest legislators have borrowed their laws from it, as is
apparent from the law of the Twelve Tables at Athens, afterwards taken by the
Romans, and as it would be easy to prove, if Josephus and others had not
sufficiently dealt with this subject.
620. Advantages of the Jewish
people.—In this search the Jewish people at once attracts my attention by the
number of wonderful and singular facts which appear about them.
I first see that they are a
people wholly composed of brethren, and whereas all others are formed by the
assemblage of an infinity of families, this, though so wonderfully fruitful,
has all sprung from one man alone, and, being thus all one flesh, and members
one of another, they constitute a powerful state of one family. This is
unique.
This family, or people, is the
most ancient within human knowledge, a fact which seems to me to inspire a
peculiar veneration for it, especially in view of our present inquiry; since
if God had from all time revealed himself to men, it is to these we must turn
for knowledge of the tradition.
This people are not eminent
solely by their antiquity, but are also singular by their duration, which has
always continued from their origin till now. For, whereas the nations of
Greece and of Italy, of Lacedaemon, of Athens and of Rome, and others who
came long after, have long since perished, these ever remain, and in spite of
the endeavours of many powerful kings who have a hundred times tried to
destroy them, as their historians testify, and as it is easy to conjecture
from the natural order of things during so long a space of years, they have nevertheless
been preserved (and this preservation has been foretold); and extending from
the earliest times to the latest, their history comprehends in its duration
all our histories which it preceded by a long time.
The law by which this people
is governed is at once the most ancient law in the world, the most perfect,
and the only one which has been always observed without a break in a state.
This is what Josephus admirably proves, Against Apion, and also Philo the
Jew, in different places, where they point out that it is so ancient that the
very name of law was only known by the oldest nation more than a thousand
years afterwards; so that Homer, who has written the history of so many
states, has never used the term. And it is easy to judge of its perfection by
simply reading it; for we see that it has provided for all things with so
great wisdom, equity, and judgement, that the most ancient legislators, Greek
and Roman, having had some knowledge of it, have borrowed from it their
principal laws; this is evident from what are called the Twelve Tables, and
from the other proofs which Josephus gives.
But this law is at the same
time the severest and strictest of all in respect to their religious worship,
imposing on this people, in order to keep them to their duty, a thousand
peculiar and painful observances, on pain of death. Whence it is very
astonishing that it has been constantly preserved during many centuries by a
people, rebellious and impatient as this one was; while all other states have
changed their laws from time to time, although these were far more lenient.
The book which contains this
law, the first of all, is itself the most ancient book in the world, those of
Homer, Hesiod, and others, being six or seven hundred years later.
621. The creation of the
deluge being past, and God no longer requiring to destroy the world, nor to
create it anew, nor to give such great signs of Himself, He began to
establish a people on the earth, purposely formed, who were to last until the
coming of the people whom the Messiah should fashion by His spirit.
622. The creation of the world
beginning to be distant, God provided a single contemporary historian, and
appointed a whole people as guardians of this book, in order that this
history might be the most authentic in the world, and that all men might
thereby learn a fact so necessary to know, and which could only be known
through that means.
623. Japhet begins the
genealogy.
Joseph folds his arms, and
prefers the younger.
624. Why should Moses make the
lives of men so long, and their generations so few?
Because it is not the length
of years, but the multitude of generations, which renders things obscure. For
truth is perverted only by the change of men. And yet he puts two things, the
most memorable that were ever imagined, namely, the creation and the deluge,
so near that we reach from one to the other.
625. Shem, who saw Lamech, who
saw Adam, saw also Jacob, who saw those who saw Moses; therefore the deluge
and the creation are true. This is conclusive among certain people who
understand it rightly.
626. The longevity of the
patriarchs, instead of causing the loss of past history, conduced, on the
contrary, to its preservation. For the reason why we are sometimes
insufficiently instructed in the history of our ancestors is that we have
never lived long with them, and that they are often dead before we have
attained the age of reason. Now, when men lived so long, children lived long
with their parents. They conversed long with them. But what else could be the
subject of their talk save the history of their ancestors, since to that all
history was reduced, and men did not study science or art, which now form a
large part of daily conversation? We see also that in these days tribes took
particular care to preserve their genealogies.
627. I believe that Joshua was
the first of God’s people to have this name, as Jesus Christ was the last of
God’s people.
628. Antiquity of the
Jews.—What a difference there is between one book and another! I am not
astonished that the Greeks made the Iliad, nor the Egyptians and the Chinese
their histories.
We have only to see how this
originates. These fabulous historians are not contemporaneous with the facts
about which they write. Homer composes a romance, which he gives out as such,
and which is received as such; for nobody doubted that Troy and Agamemnon no
more existed than did the golden apple. Accordingly, he did not think of
making a history, but solely a book to amuse; he is the only writer of his
time; the beauty of the work has made it last, every one learns it and talks
of it, it is necessary to know it, and each one knows it by heart. Four
hundred years afterwards the witnesses of these facts are no longer alive, no
one knows of his own knowledge if it be a fable or a history; one has only
learnt it from his ancestors, and this can pass for truth.
Every history which is not
contemporaneous, as the books of the Sibyls and Trismegistus, and so many
others which have been believed by the world, are false, and found to be false
in the course of time. It is not so with contemporaneous writers.
There is a great difference
between a book which an individual writes and publishes to a nation, and a
book which itself creates a nation. We cannot doubt that the book is as old
as the people.
629. Josephus hides the shame
of his nation.
Moses does not hide his own
shame.
Quis mihi det ut omnes
prophetent?111
He was weary of the multitude.
111 Num. 11. 29 Quis tribuat ut
omnis populus prophetet. “Would God that all the Lord’s people were
prophets.”
630. The sincerity of the
Jews.—Maccabees, after they had no more prophets; the Masorah, since Jesus
Christ.
This book will be a testimony
for you.
Defective and final letters.
Sincere against their honour,
and dying for it; this has no example in the world, and no root in nature.
631. Sincerity of the
Jews.—They preserve lovingly and carefully the book in which Moses declares
that they have been all their life ungrateful to God, and that he knows they
will be still more so after his death; but that he calls heaven and earth to
witness against them and that he has taught them enough.
He declares that God, being
angry with them, shall at last scatter them among all the nations of the
earth; that as they have offended Him by worshipping gods who were not their
God, so He will provoke them by calling a people who are not His people; that
He desires that all His words be preserved for ever, and that His book be placed
in the Ark of the Covenant to serve for ever as a witness against them.
Isaiah says the same thing,
30.
632. On Esdras.—The story that
the books were burnt with the temple proved false by Maccabees: “Jeremiah
gave them the law.”
The story that he recited the
whole by heart. Josephus and Esdras point out that he read the book.
Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici a Christo Nato ad Annum 1198, 180: Nullus
penitus Hebraeorum antiquorum reperitur qui tradiderit libros periisse et per
Esdram esse restitutos, nisi in IV Esdrae.
The story that he changed the
letters.
Philo, in Vita Mosis: Illa
lingua ac character quo antiquitus scripta est lex sic permansit usque ad
LXX.
Josephus says that the Law was
in Hebrew when it was translated by the Seventy.
Under Antiochus and Vespasian,
when they wanted to abolish the books, and when there was no prophet, they
could not do so. And under the Babylonians, when no persecution had been
made, and when there were so many prophets, would they have let them be
burnt?
Josephus laughs at the Greeks
who would not hear...
Tertullian: Perinde potuit
abolefactam eam violentia cataclysmi in spiritu rursus reformare, quemadmodum
et Hierosolymis Babylonia expugnatione deletis, omne instrumentum Judaicae
literaturae per Esdram constat restauratum.112
112 De cultu feminarum, i-3. “He
could equally have renewed it, under the Spirit’s inspiration, after it had
been destroyed by the violence of the deluge, as, after the destruction of
Jerusalem by the Babylonian storming of it, every document of the Jewish
literature is generally agreed to have been restored through Ezra.”
He says that Noah could as
easily have restored in spirit the book of Enoch, destroyed by the Deluge, as
Esdras could have restored the Scriptures lost during the Captivity.
(Theos) en te epi
Nabouchodonosor aichmalosia tou laou, diaphthareison ton Graphon... enepneuse
‘Esdra to ierei, ek tes phules Leui tous ton progegonoton propheton pantas
anataxasthai logous, kai apokatastesai to lae ten dia Mouseos nomothesian. He
alleges this to prove that it is not incredible that the Seventy may have
explained the Holy Scriptures with that uniformity which we admire in them.
And he took that from Saint Irenaeus.
Saint Hilary, in his preface
to the Psalms, says that Esdras arranged the Psalms in order.
The origin of this tradition
comes from the 14th chapter of the fourth book of Esdras. Deus glorificatus
est, et Scripturae vere divinae creditae sunt, omnibus eandem et eisdem
verbis et eisdem nominibus recitantibus ab initio usque ad finem, uti et
praesentes gentes cognoscerent quoniam per inspirationem Dei interpretatae
sunt Scripturae, et non esset mirabile Deum hoc in eis operatum: quando in ea
captivitate populi quae facta est a Nabuchodonosor, corruptis scripturis et
post 70 annos Judaeis descendentibus in regionem suam, et post deinde
temporibus Artaxerxis Persarum regis, inspiravit Esdrae sacerdoti tribus Levi
praeteritorum prophetarum omnes rememorare sermones, et restituere populo eam
legem quae data est per Moysen.113
113 Eusebius, Ecclesiastical
History, V. viii. 14. “God was glorified, and the Scriptures were recognized
as truly divine, for they all rendered the same things in the same words and
the same names, from beginning to end, so that even the heathen who were
present knew that the Scriptures had been translated by the inspiration of God.
And it is no marvel that God did this, for when the Scriptures had been
destroyed in the captivity of the people in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and
the Jews had gone back to their country after seventy years, then in the
times of Artaxerxes, the king of the Persians, he inspired Ezra, the priest
of the tribe of Levi, to restore all the sayings of the prophets who had gone
before, and to restore to the people the law given by Moses.” This is
Pascal’s rendering into Latin of the passage from Eusebius of which the last
lines are in Greek, above.
633. Against the story in
Esdras, II Maccab. 2.; Josephus, Antiquities, II, i.—Cyrus took occasion from
the prophecy of Isaiah to release the people. The Jews held their property in
peace under Cyrus in Babylon; hence they could well have the law.
Josephus, in the whole history
of Esdras, does not say one word about this restoration. II Kings 17. 27.
634. If the story in Esdras is
credible, then it must be believed that the Scripture is Holy Scripture; for
this story is based only on the authority of those who assert that of the
Seventy, which shows that the Scripture is holy.
Therefore, if this account be
true, we have what we want therein; if not, we have it elsewhere. And thus
those who would ruin the truth of our religion, founded on Moses, establish
it by the same authority by which they attack it. So by this providence it
still exists.
635. Chronology of Rabbinism.
(The citations of pages are from the book Pugio.)
Page 27. R. Hakadosch (anno
200), author of the Mischna, or vocal law, or second law.
Commentaries on the Mischna
(anno 340): The one Siphra.
Barajetot.
Talmud Hierosol.
Tosiphtot.
Bereschit Rabah, by R. Osaiah
Rabah, commentary on the Mischna.
Bereschit Rabah, Bar Naconi,
are subtle and pleasant discourses, historical and theological. This same
author wrote the books called Rabot.
A hundred years after the
Talmud Hierosol was composed the Babylonian Talmud, by R. Ase, A.D. 440, by
the universal consent of all the Jews, who are necessarily obliged to observe
all that is contained therein.
The addition of R. Ase is
called the Gemara, that is to say, the commentary on the Mischna.
And the Talmud includes
together the Mischna and the Gemara.
636. If does not indicate
indifference: Malachi, Isaiah.
Isaiah, Si volumus, etc.
In quacumque die.114
637. Prophecies.—The sceptre
was not interrupted by the captivity in Babylon, because the return was
promised and foretold.
638. Proofs of Jesus
Christ.—Captivity, with the assurance of deliverance within seventy years,
was not real captivity. But now they are captives without any hope.
God has promised them that,
even though He should scatter them to the ends of the earth, nevertheless, if
they were faithful to His law, He would assemble them together again. They
are very faithful to it and remain oppressed.
639. When Nebuchadnezzar
carried away the people, for fear they should believe that the sceptre had
departed from Judah, they were told beforehand that they would be there for a
short time, and that they would be restored. They were always consoled by the
prophets; and their kings continued. But the second destruction is without
promise of restoration, without prophets, without kings, without consolation,
without hope, because the sceptre is taken away for ever.
640. It is a wonderful thing,
and worthy of particular attention, to see this Jewish people existing so
many years in perpetual misery, it being necessary as a proof of Jesus Christ
both that they should exist to prove Him and that they should be miserable
because they crucified Him; and though to be miserable and to exist are
contradictory, they nevertheless still exist in spite of their misery.
641. They
are visibly a people expressly created to serve as a witness to the Messiah
(Isaiah 43. 9; 44. 8). They keep the books, and love them, and do not
understand them. And all this was foretold; that God’s judgments are
entrusted to them, but as a sealed book.
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