what the Scripture says as referring to those of your nation then in dispersion, and maintain that their prayers and sacrifices offered in every place are pure and well-pleasing, learn that you are speaking falsely, and trying by all means to cheat yourselves: for, first of all, not even now does your nation extend from the rising to the setting of the sun, but there are nations among which none of your race ever dwelt. For there is not one single race of men, whether barbarians, or Greeks, or whatever they may be called, nomads, or vagrants, or herdsmen living in tents, among whom prayers and giving of thanks are not offered through the name of the crucified Jesus. And then,[1] 1 as the Scriptures show, at the time when Malachi wrote this, your dispersion over all the earth, which now exists, had not taken place.
Chap. cxviii.—He exhorts to repentance before Christ comes; in whom Christians, since they believe, are far more religious than Jews.
"So that you ought rather to desist from the love of strife, and repent before the great day of judgment come, wherein all those of your tribes who have pierced this Christ shall mourn, as I have shown has been declared by the Scriptures. And I have explained that the Lord swore, 'after the order of Melchizedek,'[2] and what this prediction means; and the prophecy of Isaiah which says, 'His burial is taken away from the midst,'[3] I have already said, referred to the future burying and rising again of Christ; and I have frequently remarked that this very Christ is the Judge of all the living and the dead. And Nathan likewise, speaking to David about Him, thus continued: 'I will be His Father, and He shall be my Son; and my mercy shall I not take away from Him, as I did from them that went before Him; and I will establish Him in my house, and in His kingdom for ever.'[4] And Ezekiel says, 'There shall be no other prince in the house but He.'[5] For He is the chosen Priest and eternal King, the Christ, inasmuch as He is the Son of God; and do
