So the point is that Against the Jews more faithfully preserves the inner logic of Jesus exhibiting 'preaching and power' because of the scriptures. For interest sake here is how the two texts diverge from the point just cited:
Concerning the last step, plainly, of His passion you raise a doubt; affirming that the passion of the cross was not predicted with reference to Christ, and urging, besides, that it is not credible that God should have exposed His own Son to that kind of death; because Himself said, "Cursed is every one who shall have hung on a tree."188 But the reason of the case antecedently explains the sense of this malediction; for He says in Deuteronomy: "If, moreover, (a man) shall have been (involved) in some sin incurring the judgment of death, and shall die, and ye shall suspend him on a tree, his body shall not remain on the tree, but with burial ye shall bury him on the very day; because cursed by God is every one who shall have been suspended on a tree; and ye shall not defile the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee for (thy) lot."189 [3] Therefore He did not maledictively adjudge Christ to this passion, but drew a distinction, that whoever, in any sin, had incurred the judgment of death, and died suspended on a tree, he should be "cursed by God," because his own sins were the cause of his suspension on the tree. [4] On the other hand, Christ, who spoke not guile from His mouth,190 and who exhibited all righteousness and humility, not only (as we have above recorded it predicted of Him) was not exposed to that kind of death for his own deserts, but (was so exposed) in order that what was predicted by the prophets as destined to come upon Him through your means might be fulfilled; just as, in the Psalms, the Spirit Himself of Christ was already singing, saying, "They were repaying me evil for good; "192 and, "What I had not seized I was then paying in full;193 " They exterminated my hands and feet; "194 and, "They put into my drink gall, and in my thirst they slaked me with vinegar; "195 "Upon my vesture they did cast (the) lot; "196 just as the other (outrages) which you were to commit on Him were foretold,--[5] all which He, actually and thoroughly suffering, suffered not for any evil action of His own, but "that the Scriptures from the mouth of the prophets might be fulfilled."
And, of course, it had been meet that the mystery198 of the passion itself should be figuratively set forth in predictions; and the more incredible (that mystery), the more likely to be "a stumbling-stone,"199 if it had been nakedly predicted; and the more magnificent, the more to be adumbrated, that the difficulty of its intelligence might seek (help from) the grace of God.
[6] Accordingly, to begin with, Isaac, when led by his father as a victim, and himself bearing his own "wood,"200 was even at that early period pointing to Christ's death; conceded, as He was, as a victim by the Father; carrying, as He did, the "wood" of His own passion.
Joseph, again, himself was made a figure of Christ202 in this point alone (to name no more, not to delay my own course), that he suffered persecution at the hands of his brethren, and was sold into Egypt, on account of the favour of God;203 just as Christ was sold by Israel--(and therefore, ) "according to the flesh," by His "brethren"204 --when He is betrayed by Judas. For Joseph is withal blest by his father206 after this form: "His glory (is that) of a bull; his horns, the horns of an unicorn; on them shall he toss nations alike unto the very extremity of the earth." Of course no one-horned rhinoceros was there pointed to, nor any two-horned minotaur. But Christ was therein signified: "bull," by reason of each of His two characters,--to some fierce, as Judge; to others gentle, as Saviour; whose "horns" were to be the extremities of the cross. For even in a ship's yard--which is part of a cross--this is the name by which the extremities are called; while the central pole of the mast is a "unicorn." [8] By this power, in fact, of the cross, and in this manner horned, He does now, on the one hand, "toss" universal nations through faith, wafting them away from earth to heaven; and will one day, on the other, "toss" them through judgment, casting them down from heaven to earth.
He, again, will be the" bull" elsewhere too in the same scripture.207 When Jacob pronounced a blessing on Simeon and Levi, he prophesies of the scribes and Pharisees; for from them208 is derived their209 origin. [9] For (his blessing) interprets spiritually thus: "Simeon and Levi perfected iniquity out of their sect,"210 --whereby, to wit, they persecuted Christ: "into their counsel come not my soul! and upon their station rest not my heart! because in their indignation they slew men"--that is, prophets--"and in their concupiscence they hamstrung a bull!"211 --that is, Christ, whom--after the slaughter of prophets--they slew, and exhausted their savagery by transfixing His sinews with nails. [10] Else it is idle if, after the murder already committed by them, he upbraids others, and not them, with butchery. But, to come now to Moses, why, I wonder, did he merely at the time when Joshua was battling against Amalek, pray sitting with hands expanded, when, in circumstances so critical, he ought rather, surely, to have commended his prayer by knees bended, and hands beating his breast, and a face prostrate on the ground; except it was that there, where the name of the Lord Jesus was the theme of speech--destined as He was to enter the lists one day singly against the devil--the figure of the cross was also necessary, (that figure) through which Jesus was to win the victory?213 Why, again, did the same Moses, after the prohibition of any "likeness of anything,"214 set forth a brazen serpent, placed on a "tree," in a hanging posture, for a spectacle of healing to Israel, at the time when, after their idolatry,215 they were suffering extermination by serpents, except that in this case he was exhibiting the Lord's cross on which the "serpent" the devil was "made a show of,"216 and, for every one hurt by such snakes--that is, his angels217 --on turning intently from the peccancy of sins to the sacraments of Christ's cross, salvation was outwrought? For he who then gazed upon that (cross) was freed from the bite of the serpents.
Come, now, if you have read in the utterance of the prophet in the Psalms, "God hath reigned from the tree,"219 I wait to hear what you understand thereby; for fear you may perhaps think some carpenter-king220 is signified, and not Christ, who has reigned from that time onward when he overcame the death which ensued from His passion of "the tree."
Similarly, again, Isaiah says: "For a child is born to us, and to us is given a son."221 What novelty is that, unless he is speaking of the "Son" of God?--and one is born to us the beginning of whose government has been made "on His shoulder." [12] What king in the world wears the ensign of his power on his shoulder, and does not bear either diadem on his head, or else sceptre in his hand, or else some mark of distinctive vesture? But the novel "King of ages," Christ Jesus, alone reared "on His shoulder" His own novel glory, and power, and sublimity,--the cross, to wit; that, according to the former prophecy, the Lord thenceforth "might reign from the tree." For of this tree likewise it is that God hints, through Jeremiah, that you would say, "Come, let us put wood222 into his bread, and let us wear him away out of the land of the living; and his name shall no more be remembered."223 Of course on His body that "wood" was put;224 for so Christ has revealed, calling His body "bread,"225 whose body the prophet in bygone days announced under the term "bread." [13] If you shall still seek for predictions of the Lord's cross, the twenty-first Psalm will at length be able to satisfy you, containing as it does the whole passion of Christ; singing, as He does, even at so early a date, His own glory.226 "They dug," He says, "my hands and feet"227 --which is the peculiar atrocity of the cross; and again when He implores the aid of the Father, "Save me," He says, out of the mouth of the lion"--of course, of death--"and from the horn of the unicorns my humility,"228 --from the ends, to wit, of the cross, as we have above shown; [14] which cross neither David himself suffered, nor any of the kings of the Jews: that you may not think the passion of some other particular man is here prophesied than His who alone was so signally crucified by the People.
Now, if the hardness of your heart shall persist in rejecting and deriding all these interpretations, we will prove that it may suffice that the death of the Christ had been prophesied, in order that, from the fact that the nature of the death had not been specified, it may be understood to have been affected by means of the cross229 and that the passion of the cross is not to be ascribed to any but Him whose death was constantly being predicted. [15] For I desire to show, in one utterance of Isaiah, His death, and passion, and sepulture. "By the crimes," he says, "of my people was He led unto death; and I will give the evil for His sepulture, and the rich for His death, because He did not wickedness, nor was guile found in his mouth; and God willed to redeem His soul from death,"230 and so forth. [16] He says again, moreover: "His sepulture hath been taken away from the midst."231 For neither was He buried except He were dead, nor was His sepulture removed from the midst except through His resurrection. Finally, he subjoins: "Therefore He shall have many for an heritage, and of many shall He divide spoils:232 " who else (shall so do) but He who "was born," as we have above shown?--"in return for the fact that His soul was delivered unto death? "For, the cause of the favour accorded Him being shown,--in return, to wit, for the injury of a death which had to be recompensed,--it is likewise shown that He, destined to attain these rewards because of death, was to attain them after death--of course after resurrection. [17] For that which happened at His passion, that mid-day grew dark, the prophet Amos announces, saying, "And it shall be," he says, "in that day, saith the Lord, the sun shall set at mid-day, and the day of light shall grow dark over the land: and I will convert your festive days into grief, and all your canticles into lamentation; and I will lay upon your loins sackcloth, and upon every head baldness; and I will make the grief like that for a beloved (son), and them that are with him like a day of mourning."233 [18] For that you would do thus at the beginning of the first month of your new (years) even Moses prophesied, when he was foretelling that all the community of the sons of lsrael was234 to immolate at eventide a lamb, and were to eat235 this solemn sacrifice of this day (that is, of the passover of unleavened bread) with bitterness; "and added that "it was the passover of the Lord,"236 that is, the passion of Christ. Which prediction was thus also fulfilled, that "on the first day of unleavened bread"237 you slew Christ;238 [19] and (that the prophecies might be fulfilled) the day hasted to make an "eventide,"--that is, to cause darkness, which was made at mid-day; and thus "your festive days God converted into grief, and your canticles into lamentation." For after the passion of Christ there overtook you even captivity and dispersion, predicted before through the Holy Spirit.
At least in the manner of his death, I suppose, you try to suggest a difference, alleging that the passion of the cross was never prophesied of the Creator's Christ, with a further argument that it is quite incredible that the Creator should have exposed his Son to that form of death on which he himself had laid a curse. Cursed, it says, is every one that hath hung on a tree. Now the meaning of this curse I leave for later consideration— though it is in full keeping solely with that preaching of the cross which is our present subject of inquiry—because on other occasions also the proof of facts has preceded the explanation of them. I shall first explain about the types. And certainly there were most cogent reasons why this mystery could not escape being prophesied by types and figures. The more incredible it was, the more offensive it would become if it were prophesied in plain terms: and the more marvellous it was, the more it needed to be covered in obscurity, so that difficulty of understanding might make request for the grace of God. And so Isaac, to begin with, when delivered up by his father for a sacrifice, himself carried the wood for himself,b and did at that early date set forth the death of Christ, who when surrendered as a victim by his Father carried the wood of his own passion.2 Joseph also, himself to be a type of Christ—and not for this reason alone <that I delay not my course> that he suffered persecution from his brethren because of God's grace, as Christ suffered from the Jews, his brethren according to the flesh—when blessed by his father in these precise terms, His glory is that of a bullock, his horns are the horns of a unicorn: with them will he winnow the nations together, even to the end of the earth,c was certainly not intended to be a rhinoceros with one horn or a minotaur with two horns: rather in him Christ was indicated, a bullock according to both accounts, to some people stern as a judge, to others kind as a saviour, whose horns were to be the extremities of the Cross.3 For in a yardarm, which is part of a cross, the extreme ends are called horns, while the unicorn is the upright middle post. So then by this virtue of the Cross, and by being horned after this manner, he is even now winnowing all the nations through faith, lifting them up from earth into heaven, as he will afterwards winnow them by judgement, casting them down from heaven to earth. He is also to be found as a bullock in another place in the same scripture, where Jacob utters a spiritual reproof against Simeon and Levi, who stand for the scribes and pharisees, for their origin is counted from these: Simeon and Levi have perfected iniquity by their heresy— that, it means, by which they persecuted Christ—let not my soul come into their council, and let not my affections take rest in their assembly, because in their indignation they have put men to death—that is, the prophets—and in their concupiscence they have severed the sinews of a bulld—that is, of Christ, whom after the murder of the prophets they crucified, and with nails wrought savagery against his sinews. Otherwise it would be to no purpose if, after the murder of men, he were to rebuke them for the slaughter of some ox or other. And again, why did Moses on that occasion only when Joshua was warring against Amalek, pray sitting and with out-stretched hands,e when in such critical circumstances he might have been expected rather to commend his prayer by bended knees, by hands beating the breast, and face turned down to the ground? Evidently because on that occasion, when one was contending who bore our Lord's name, as our Lord himself was afterwards to contend against the devil, the form of the cross was essential, so that by it Joshua might gain the victory. The same Moses again, although he had forbidden the likeness of any thing,f afterwards set up a brazen serpent on a poleg in the attitude of one hanging, and commended it to be gazed upon for healing.4 Why was this, except that here too he was asserting the power of our Lord's Cross, by which <that old> serpent, the devil, was being reduced to bondage, while to everyone wounded by spiritual snake-bites who should look upon it and believe in it, was promised healing of the bites of sins, and salvation from thence forward?
Come now, if you have read in the Psalms,a The Lord hath reigned from the tree,1 I wonder what you understand by it: unless perhaps <you think> the reference is to some woodman as king of the Jews, and not to Christ, who ever since his suffering on the tree has been king through his conquest of death. For although death reigned from Adam until Christ, why should not Christ be said to have reigned from the tree, ever since by dying on the
tree of the Cross he drove out the kingdom of death? In the same sense also Isaiah says, Because to us a child is born:b what is new in this, unless he is speaking of the Son of God? And, Unto us one is given, whose government is placed upon his shoulder: which of the kings ever displays the sign of his dominion upon his shoulder, and not rather a crown upon his head or a sceptre in his hand, or some mark of appropriate apparel? No, only the new king of the new ages, Christ Jesus, <the king> of new glory, has lifted up upon his shoulder his own dominion and majesty, which is the Cross, so that from thenceforth, as our previous prophecy stated, he did as Lord reign from the tree. You have a hint of this tree also in Jeremiah, who prophesies to the Jews that they will say, Come and let us cast a tree into his bread,c meaning, his body. For so God has revealed it, even in the gospel which you accept, when he says that bread is his body:d so that even from this you can under- stand that he who gave bread the figure of his body is the same as he whose body the prophet had of old figuratively described as bread, as our Lord himself was afterwards to expound this mystery. If you ask for further prophecy of our Lord's Cross, you can find complete satisfaction in the twenty-first psalm, which comprises the whole passion of Christ, who was even at that date foretelling of his own glory. They pierced, he says, my hands and my feet,e which is the particular outrage of the cross. And again, while appealing for his Father's help, he says, Save me from the lion's mouth, meaning death: and <my> lowliness from the horns of the unicorn,f the points of the cross, as I have already pointed out.2 Now since neither David nor any king of the Jews had to suffer that cross, you cannot think this a prophecy of the passion of anyone else, but only of him who alone was so notably crucified by that people.
So now, if the heretic's obstinacy contemns and derides all these interpretations of mine, I shall <be prepared to> grant him that the Creator has given <in this psalm> no indication of any cross of Christ, in that even on this ground he will not prove that he who was crucified was any other <than the Creator's Christ>—unless perchance he succeeds in showing that his death in this form was prophesied by his own god, so that diversity of prophesyings may prove there was diversity of passions and, in consequence, diversity of persons. But as there was no prophecy of Marcion's Christ, far less of his cross, the prophecy of one death <and not two> is sufficient proof that the Christ who is meant is mine. From the fact that the manner of his death is not stated, it follows that it could have come about by a cross, and it could only have had reference to another if there had also been prophecy of another—unless perhaps he prefers that not even the death of my Christ was prophesied: in which case he is put to greater shame, while he tells of the death of his own Christ, whose birth he denies, but denies the death of my Christ, whose birth he admits. But I can prove both the death and the burial and the resurrection of my Christ by one word of Isaiah, who says, His sepulture hath been taken away out of the midst.g He could not have been buried without having died, nor could his sepulture have been taken away out of the midst except by resurrection. And so he added, Therefore shall he have many for an inheritance, and of many shall he divide the spoils, because his soul hath been delivered over unto death.h For in this is indicated the purpose of this grace, that it is to be a recompense for the insult of death. It is likewise indicated that he is to obtain these things after death, by virtue, that is, of resurrection.