Chapter 4 The Destruction of Jerusalem, Ordered byGod, Did Not Diminish Him.
Chapter 4
1. Furthermore, they dare to say about the Lord and about Jerusalem that if it were the city of the great King, it would not be forsaken. The case would be similar were one to say, if straw is God’s creation, it would never be forsaken by the grain; and the twigs of a vine, if they have been made by God, would never be cut off if devoid of clusters. Now these things are not primarily for their own sakes, but for the sake of the fruit that grows on them, and they are forsaken when this has ripened and has been removed, and those that can no longer be used for producing fruit are removed entirely. The case of Jerusalem is similar. She bore in herself the yoke of servitude; by it, man, who before was not submissive to God when death reigned, was tamed, and having been tamed was made fit for liberty. But when the fruit of liberty had arrived, it grew to maturity and was harvested and stored in the granary, and those who were able to produce fruit were carried away from her [Jerusalem] and disseminated over the entire world. In reference to this Isaiah says, The sons of Jacob shall bud, and Israel shall blossom, and the entire earth shall be filled with its fruit. For after the fruit had been disseminated over the entire earth, she who once produced such fruit was rightly forsaken and removed completely. It was Christ according to the flesh who was produced from her as fruit, and the apostles too. But now she is no longer of any use for producing fruit. For whatever has a beginning in time must also have an end in time.
2. Since, then, the Law began with Moses, it was logical for it to cease with John, because Christ had come for its fulfillment. That is why the Law and the prophets were with them until John. Likewise, since Jerusalem began with David having fulfilled the time, it was necessary that its legislation come to an end when the new covenant was revealed. For God does all things with measure and order, and with him nothing is unmeasured, since nothing is unplanned. The one spoke well who said that the unmeasurable Father was measured in the Son; for the Son is the measure of the Father, since he even comprehends him.
But Isaiah says that their [Jerusalem’s and the Law’s] dispensation was temporal, And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, and like a lodge in a cucumber field. But when will these things be forsaken? Will it not be when the fruit is taken away and the leaves alone are left, which can no longer produce fruit?
3. Why do we speak of Jerusalem, since the form of the entire world must pass away, when the time of its passing away comes, so that the fruit might be gathered into the granary, but the straw that was left be burned? For behold, the day comes burning like an oven, and all the sinners and the evil-doers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up. Now, John the Baptist points out who this Lord is that brings on such a day, when he says of Christ, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary: but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. So it is not one who produces the wheat and another the straw, but one and the same; and he judges them, that is, separates them. Now the wheat and the straw are inanimate and irrational and were made such by nature. Man, however, is rational, and by virtue of this he is like God; he was made free in his will and master of himself, and so has within himself the principle of sometimes becoming wheat, but sometimes straw. So he will be justly condemned, since, though he was made rational, he lost true reason, and living irrationally he opposed God’s justice, giving himself up to every worldly spirit and serving all lusts, just as the prophet said: Man when he was in honor did not understand; he has been compared to senseless beasts, and made like to them.