Chapter CXXX.—He returns to the conversion of the Gentiles, and shows that
it was foretold.
And when all had given assent, I said: “I would now adduce some passages which I had
not recounted before. They are recorded by the faithful servant Moses in parable, and are
as follows: ‘Rejoice, O ye heavens, with Him, and let all the angels of God worship Him;’
”694 and I added what follows of the passage: “ ‘Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people, and
let all the angels of God be strengthened in Him: for the blood of His sons He avenges, and
will avenge, and will recompense His enemies with vengeance, and will recompense those
that hate Him; and the Lord will purify the land of His people.’ And by these words He de-
clares that we, the nations, rejoice with His people, —to wit, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
and the prophets, and, in short, all of that people who are well-pleasing to God, according
to what has been already agreed on between us. But we will not receive it of all your nation;
since we know from Isaiah695 that the members of those who have transgressed shall be
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consumed by the worm and unquenchable fire, remaining immortal; so that they become
a spectacle to all flesh. But in addition to these, I wish, sirs,” said I, “to add some other pas-
sages from the very words of Moses, from which you may understand that God has from
of old dispersed all men according to their kindreds and tongues; and out of all kindreds
has taken to Himself your kindred, a useless, disobedient, and faithless generation; and has
shown that those who were selected out of every nation have obeyed His will through
Christ,—whom He calls also Jacob, and names Israel, —and these, then, as I mentioned
fully previously, must be Jacob and Israel. For when He says, ‘Rejoice, O ye nations, with
His people,’ He allots the same inheritance to them, and does not call them by the same
name;696 but when He says that they as Gentiles rejoice with His people, He calls them
Gentiles to reproach you. For even as you provoked Him to anger by your idolatry, so also
He has deemed those who were idolaters worthy of knowing His will, and of inheriting His
inheritance.
694 Deut. xxxii. 43.
695 Isa. lxvi. 24.
696 The reading is, “and calls them by the same name.” But the whole argument shows that the Jews and
Gentiles are distinguished by name. [But that Gentiles are also called (Israel) by the same name is the point
here.]
Chapter CXXX.—He returns to the conversion of the Gentiles, and shows that it was foretold.
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Chapter CXXX.—He returns to the conversion of the Gentiles, and shows that…