Letter 55

To the same person. Do not let the Jew deceive you by saying that it was on account of other sins that they have been estranged from Palestine. For it was not on account of other sins, but on account of the killing of the Lord [Kyrioktonia, the crucifixion of Christ] that they have suffered these incurable things. For formerly, when they practiced idolatry, and murdered the prophets, and sacrificed their daughters and their sons to the demons, they were handed over by God into captivity to foreigners; and after a few years, by the divine will, they were brought back again into the land of the promise. But from the time they dared the incurable deed, to lay their hands upon the Son of God, they have been given over to utter destruction. Behold, it is now the five-hundredth year, and nowhere is there any divine visitation, no succor, no consolation, no prophet admonishing and supporting them, as in Babylon there were Ezekiel and Daniel and others. For God no longer wishes to converse with them, abhorring them.

Μή σε ἀπατάτω ὁ Ἰουδαῖος λέγων δι᾽ ἑτέρας ἁμαρτίας τὰς ἀπηλλοτριῶσθαι τῆς Παλαιστίνης. Οὐ γὰρ δι᾽ ἄλλας ἁμαρτίας, διὰ δὲ τὴν Κυριοκτονίαν πεπόνθασι τὰ ἀνήκεστα. Πρώην μὲν γὰρ εἰδωλολατροῦντες, καὶ τοὺς προφήτας φονεύοντες, καὶ τοῖς δαίμοσι τὰς θυγατέρας καὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς θύοντες, τοῖς ἀλλοφύλοις εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν ὑπὸ Θεοῦ παρεδίδοντο, καὶ μετ᾽ ὀλίγα ἔτη τῷ θείῳ βουλήματι πάλιν ἐπανήγοντο εἰς τὴν γῆν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας. Ἀφ᾽ οὗ δὲ τὸ ἀνίατον τετολμήκασι πρᾶγμα, εἰς τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὰς χεῖρας ἐπιβαλεῖν, παντελεῖ πορθήσει ἐνδέδονται. Ἰδοὺ λοιπὸν πεντακοσιοστὸν ἔτος, καὶ οὐδαμοῦ θεία τις ἐπισκοπή, οὐκ ἀντίληψις, οὐ παρηγορία, οὐ προφήτης νουθετῶν καὶ στηρίζων, ὥσπερ ἐν Βαβυλῶνι Ἰεζεκιήλ τε καὶ Δανιήλ, καὶ ἄλλοι. Οὐκ ἔτι γὰρ αὐτοῖς θέλει προσομιλεῖν ὁ Θεὸς βδελυττόμενος τούτους.