14. That He is the righteous One whom the
Jews should put to death.
In the Wisdom of Solomon: “Let us lay
hold of the righteous, because He is disagreeable to us, and is
contrary to our works, and reproacheth us with our transgressions of
the law.
4025
He
professeth that He has the knowledge of God, and calls Himself the Son
of God; He has become to us an exposure of our thoughts; He is grievous
unto us even to look upon, because His life is unlike to others, and
His ways are changed. We are esteemed by Him as frivolous, and He
restraineth Himself from our ways, as if from uncleanness; and He
extols the last end of the righteous, and boasts that He has God for
His Father. Let us see, then, if His words are true, and let us
try what will come to Him. Let us interrogate Him with reproach
and torture, that we may know His reverence and prove His
patience. Let us condemn Him with a most shameful death.
These things they considered, and erred. For their maliciousness
hath blinded them, and they knew not the sacraments of
God.”
4026
Also in
Isaiah: “See ye how the righteous perisheth, and no man
understandeth; and righteous men are taken away, and no man
regardeth. For the righteous man is taken away from the face of
unrighteousness, and his burial shall be in peace.”
4027
Concerning this very thing it was before foretold in Exodus:
“Thou shalt not slay the innocent and the
righteous.”
4028
Also
in the Gospel: “Judas, led by penitence, said to the
priests and elders, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent
blood.”
4029
4025
The
Oxford translation here inserts from the Apocrypha, without authority
even for its text, “and objecteth to us the transgressions of the
law.”
4026
Wisd. ii.
12–22
.
4027
Isa. lvii. 1, 2
. [Justin, vol. i. 203.]
4028
Ex. xxiii. 7
.
4029
Matt. xxvii. 3, 4
.