Chapter XIV.—Of the Fact that the God of the Hebrews, Although the People Were
Conquered, Proved Himself to Be Unconquered, by Overthrowing the Idols, and by Turning
All the Gentiles to His Own Service.
21. Here indeed we have a wonderful fact, which is not remarked by those few pagans
who have remained such,—namely, that this God of the Hebrews who was offended by the
conquered, and who was also denied acceptance by the conquerors, is now preached and
worshipped among all nations. This is that God of Israel of whom the prophet spake so long
time since, when he thus addressed the people of God: “And He who brought thee out, the
God of Israel, shall be called (the God) of the whole earth.”558 What was thus prophesied
has been brought to pass through the name of the Christ, who comes to men in the form of
a descendant of that very Israel who was the grandson of Abraham, with whom the race of
the Hebrews began.559 For it was to this Israel also that it was said, “In thy seed shall all the
tribes of the earth be blessed.”560 Thus it is shown that the God of Israel, the true God who
made heaven and earth, and who administers human affairs justly and mercifully in such
wise that neither does justice exclude mercy with Him, nor does mercy hinder justice, was
not overcome Himself when His Hebrew people suffered their overthrow, in virtue of His
permitting the kingdom and priesthood of that nation to be seized and subverted by the
Romans. For now, indeed, by the might of this gospel of Christ, the true King and Priest,
the advent of which was prefigured by that kingdom and priesthood, the God of Israel
Himself is everywhere destroying the idols of the nations. And, in truth, it was to prevent
that destruction that the Romans refused to admit the sacred rites of this God in the way
that they admitted those of the gods of the other nations whom they conquered. Thus did
He remove both kingdom and priesthood from the prophetic nation, because He who was
promised to men through the agency of that people had already come. And by Christ the
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King He has brought into subjection to His own name that Roman empire by which the
said nation was overcome; and by the strength and devotion of Christian faith, He has
converted it so as to effect a subversion of those idols, the honour ascribed to which precluded
His worship from obtaining entrance.
22. I am of opinion that it was not by means of magical arts that Christ, previous to His
birth among men, brought it about that those things which were destined to come to pass
in the course of His history, were pre-announced by so many prophets, and prefigured also
558 Et qui eruit te, Deus Israel, universæ terræ vocabitur. Isa. liv. 5. [Compare the Hebrew, from which the
Latin citation varies.—R.]
559 In his Retractations (ii. 16) Augustin alludes to this sentence, and says that the word Hebrews (Hebræi)
may be derived from Abraham, as if the original form had been Abrahæi, but that it is more correct to take it
from Heber, so that Hebræi is for Heberæi. He refers us also to his discussion in the City of God, xvi. 11.
560 Gen. xxviii. 14.
Of the Fact that the God of the Hebrews, Although the People Were Conquered, Proved Himself to Be Unconquered, by Overthrowing the Idols, and by Turning All the Gentiles to His Own Service.
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Of the Fact that the God of the Hebrews, Although the People Were Conquered,…