The Teaching of Jacob the recently baptized – baptized against his will under the reign of the most pious emperor Heraclius and the government of the Eparch of Carthages, George – to the recently baptized ex-Jews; indeed he himself had a good opportunity to know the Lord. That it is not necessary to observe the Sabbath after the Passion of Christ, that the who has come is really the Christ, and no one else.

1. A sign, even more, a marvel, has happened during our days, I, Joseph, the sinner, recently baptized among the Jews, have been permitted to write what I have heard, so that our soul receive the greatest profit from it that God be glorified, who loves men and does not want a single one to be lost, but that all sinners be saved. And now be silent and listen, paying attention to what is said, the account is full of edification and emotion about what has come to pass.

2. The Emperor Heraclius had ordered that Jews everywhere and throughout the land be baptized. When George, the Eparch, came to Africa, he ordered that we gather before him, all the leaders among the Jews. And when we were gathered before him, he said to us, “Are you servants of the emperor?”

And we, in response, said, “Yes, Lord, we are servants of the emperor.”

He said, “The most pious one has ordered that you be baptized.

In hearing that we trembled and were terrified, and no one among us dared speak. He said, “Do you have nothing to say?”

One of us, who was named Jonas, responded, saying, “We will do no such thing; the hour has not come for holy baptism.”

Angry, the eparch got up and slapped him in the face with his hands, saying, “You are his servants and you do not obey the order of your lord?”

As for us, we were petrified with terror. He ordered that we be baptized, and we were, willingly or unwillingly, and we found ourselves in great doubt and in great affliction.

3. Thanks to the grace of God, who loves men and wants that everyone be saved and gain true knowledge, a doctor of the Law, named Jacob arrived from Constantinople with important merchandise belonging to a rich man that he needed to sell. And seeing what happened he began to say that he was Christian, invoking the name of holy Mary, and passing as a Christian so as not to be recognized, detained, and baptized. But thanks to the divine wisdom, who always makes misfortune into something useful, a certain person came to Joseph to buy merchandise. He took 3 of the most beautiful robes thinking that Jacob would come to look for their price. When Jacob went there, it was already night, and the other said to him, “Take the robes, and in the morning, take their price in all security for it is already evening.

Opening the door, Jacob caught is foot in a hole, and he cried out, “Adonai, my God, help me!”

The other, who bent over to see, said to himself, “In truth, this one is a Jew. And going to the bath, he examined him and recognized that he was circumcised, so he went denounce him. He was taken and told, “Be baptized!”

He responded, “I will not be baptized, for the hour of holy baptism has not yet come.”

He was put in prison. He was locked up for 100 days, then they asked him again: “Be baptized!”

He responded, “I won’t do it. Fire, hanging, torture, whatever you want, do to me. I, I will not do such a thing.”

So they overcame him and willingly or unwillingly baptized him by force. At that point be began to cry and pray to God to show him whether he had been baptized for a good reason, or wrongly. And in a dream, a being carrying a light, appeared to him and said: “Why are you scandalized to call the Christ Son of God? Did not God, who spoke through David, speak of his corporeal birth: “The Lord said to me, you are my Son, and I have engendered you today, etc.?”

From that point Jacob set out zealously to research the New Testament and the holy scriptures and he discovered that it was the Christ who was born under the emperor Augustus.

4. One day, he encountered us, and he said to us, “Why are you sad and afflicted?”

We said, “Because today we are greatly shamed and in doubt because of what has happened to us.”

And he said to us, “Come, don’t be depressed or beaten down, but trust me.”

We congregated apart (from him) where we were, to discuss this, and Isaac, one of ours said, “I know a house where no one will be able to hear us if we talk and raise our voices.

5. We gathered on a Saturday, we entered and we sat down, and when we closed the door, Jacob began to speak, saying, “Brothers, people of my people….

7. For my part, as true as if I stood before God, I received assurance that it was indeed the Christ who was born of the holy Mary, and I give thanks that I was baptized and made a Christian, even against my will. Since my baptism I have incessantly, night and day, in tears, groans and fasting, to search the Law and the prophets in Greek, borrowing books from Christian friends from a monastery in Carthage, and I sought whether or not I had strayed by being baptized and becoming a Christian. And I discovered that Moses, or rather the Holy Spirit by the intermediary of Moses, caused to be said to our father Jacob in his benediction to his children: “Judah, your brothers will praise you, your hands will be on the neck of your enemies, the sons of your father will prostrate themselves before you, lion cub, my son, you are an issue from the branch of Judah.” (See. Is. 11:1) And we see that the Christ who has come is an issue from Judah, true man and true God, the sole Christ.

8. (King) David said in effect, “Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord, God the Lord, who has shown himself to us.” And he said again, “A man is born in her and it is the Most High himself who has established her.” And Jeremiah said again, “He who is our God, one should recognize no one else but he.” And Isaiah said, “Behold the vergin will conceive and she will give birth to a son who will be called Emmanuel,” and again “I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and she gave birth to a son. And the Lord said, ‘Call him Quick to pillage, Eager for booty.” Because the Christ has triumphed over the dead and over hell, and he delivered the prisoners from the grasp of the demon, and he put to an end the diabolical straying after idols, as Moses said. He said in effect, “Your hands will be upon the neck of your enemies, and the sons of your father will prostrate themselves before you.” And the prophet spoke well; for since Adam the first man sinned, all of humanity had been in the grasp of the demon, hobbled by the feet, and all of creation adored demons. As divine scripture says, “The idols of the nations are demonic,” and neither the holy Law nor the prophets have pulled the world from straying after idols, rather, even the prophets were in danger, some of the kings who knew the Law and the prophets went astray, like Ahab, Manassah, and others. The prophets had predicted that by the Christ who would come the salvation of the world would be accomplished. After arriving, the Word of God took on flesh from the line of Judah and deigned to make himself man because men could not have withstood to see his divinity directlym and he placed his hands “on the neck of his enemies” for the Christ, man and God, chassed away the demons who fled and trembled, turning their back on him – and in stretching his hands over the cross he annihilated the devil. Humanity prostrates itself before the Christ like a brother, since it was our flesh he put on, and as before God, whether they will it or not. And no one dare say, I do not worship the flesh because it was created, in the same way that no one dares say to a king: Take off the clothing that you are wearing, if not, I will not bow before you. The king receives homage wearing his clothes and in the same way the Word of God receives adoration with his flesh that he took from us men. As Daniel says, “Behold the Son of Man comes with the clouds of the sky and he gave him the power, the honor, and the royalty, and all the peoples, all the races, and all the tongues will serve him.

9. As Isaiah said also, “A child is born to us, a son is given to us, mighty God, father of the age to come,” And Moses said in Numbers via Balaam’s mouth, “A man shall be born of the race of Israel who will reign over many peoples.” And again in Deuteronomy, Moses said, “If you enter into the land that the Lord your God gives you, do no learn to follow the abominations of the nations,” and what follows, “But God will raise for you a prophet like me, you will listen to him according to all that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb, saying, Let us no longer hear the voice of the Lord our God and we will no longer see the great fire, lest we die; and the Lord said to Moses, All that they said is just; I will raise up in the midst of their brothers a prophet like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will talk to them as I command him, and the man who will not listen to all the words that this prophet will announce in my name, I will avenge myself against him.” You see my brothers, that the Christ has come, the Word of God, he who is eternally with God and who in his human form teaches us the divine mysteries and the kingdom of the heavens, who as a legislator gives us a new Law by the holy Gospels, so that Moses spoke truly by affirming “like me”, that is to say in predicting a legislator to come.

10. ….And Jeremiah said again, “Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, where I will raise up a true descendent of David, where a just king will reign, and he will create justice and equity in the midst of the land. In these days, Judah will be saved and Israel will come to trust in him; and behold the name that the Lord will give him, Yosedek, our lord of justice, and he will be among the number of the prophets.” Have you heard the justice, the equity, the new alliance of Christ? Therefore let no one hesitate to embrace the faith of the Christ.”

11. Those of the circumcision responded, “And why did Moses say, “ Keep this law, and by it you will live,” whereas you, sir Joseph, you say that it is no longer necessary to judaize or observe the Sabbath? We, we want to observe the Sabbath at the same time as believing in the Christ.

Jacob responded and said, “Moses, the great legislator teaches us that saying “conserve” the Law that God has given you by my intermediary, and when you will enter into the promised land, do not do ‘according to the abominations of these nations’ But you, ‘do not act thus’ because the Lord your God will raise up among your brothers a prophet like me’ ‘you will listen to him in all things’ So the Christ has come, being the Word of God become man without alteration, mediation between God and men, like the great prophet Moses told us. Listen therefore to all the words of the Christ who has come, so that Moses not be our accuser in the world to come….

14. As David also said, “All the extremities of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” And again…”And all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him, all the nations will proclaim him blessed.”…See my brothers, that the Christ is the son of David, who is at once man and God, and one calls him God of Israel “blessed of the ages.”…Because Isaiah said, “The branch of Jesse will continue in him who will rise up to command the nations; the nations will hope in him.” And again, “They will pray in you and prostrate themselves in you because God is in you, and you are our God and there is no other god but you, because it is you our God, and we did not know it, the God of salvation.” “So, he said, “the lion will graze with the lamb, the panther will lay down with the ram, the cow, the bull and the lion will graze together, and a little child will lead them; the cow and the bear will graze together, and the lion and the bull will eat grass together.” By this the prophet means the knowledge of God for the nations.

16. …My brothers, until the coming of the Christ, men were under the unjust lies of the devil…”the Lord of Saboath will cause all the nations to come to mountain of Zion….”

18. And again: “For the Lord will wash away the filth of sons and daughters of Zion.” This “the Lord will wash” refers to the holy baptism of the Christ…..

19. That God hates those who judaize and observe the Sabbath after the Passion of the Christ he says via Malachai, “I have no pleasure of the sons of Israel, and I will not receive the sacrifice of their hands; for from the East to the West, my name is glorified among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, because my name is great among the nations, I am living, says the Lord Almighty.” As for those who want to judaize still and observe the Sabbath after the Passion of the Christ, and who say, “The Annointed One has not yet come, I wait while judaizing and observing the Sabbath, respecting the Law of Moses.” Isaiah said about them, “Woe those who lengthen their sins as a great rope, and their injustices like a yoke of groaning …Woe to those who say that evil is good and good is evil, to those how take light for darkness and darkness for light…And Jeremiah says, “A foolish people and without a heart, they have ears but do not hear, they have eyes but do not see, and you will not fear me, or respect my face…””Because my people are disobedient, lying sons..”

20. And Isaiah said about the Jews rebelling against the Christ, “Hear, heavens, give ear, earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have engendered sons, I have raised them, and they have denied me. The cow knows his owner, and the ass the manger of his master, but Israel has not recognized me, and my people have not understood me.”….

22. The prophet speaks thus of these times: “And you will know and you will understand at the point the word arises to separate oneself and construct Jersalem, up to Christ the chief, 7 weeks and 62 weeks; and he will return and one will build a wall and a place, and the time has passed, and after 62 weeks the anointing will be annihilated, and there will be no justice in it, and one will destroy the town and the holy place with the chief that will come.” It (the prophesy) speaks of the chief of the Jews who came afterwards, Aristoboulos, who was taken by the Romans and left for Rome a prisoner with his wives and children, his brother having been killed by the Parthians, to make a failure of “ the prince, issue of Judah, will not fail, nor a chief from his loins until he for whom it was reserved comes, he who is the hope of the nations.” And, in effect, at the birth of the Christ, our chief, the master, the God and king of all creation, in Bethlehem of Judea, Herod, an Ascalonite foreigner reigned over our country and us, the Jews, and we were subjugated by the Romans until this day, and the prophecy of our father Jacob, the son of Isaac, has come true, Daniel says, in effect, “And you will know and you will understand, at the point the word arises to separate oneself and construct Jerusalem until Christ the chief, 7 weeks and 62 weeks,” which is to say 483 year, and the Christ came on 484^th year since the foundation of Temple and the city (Jerusalem). For the Christ appeared at the beginning of the 70^th week, and he saved us from the lies of the devil. For Aristoboulos, along with his children, was made a prisoner by the Romans. The Romans destroyed the holy city and they reduced the people to slavery, along with our chief, the chief of the Jews, Aristoboulos, as indicated. So at the end of the Jewish kingdom, Herod, the stranger ruled on behalf of the Romans and put on the sacred vestment. Thus our kingship and our priesthood failed according to the prophecy of our father Jacob. And at the same time, under the reign of Herod, the Christ was born in Bethlehem, “the salvation and hope of the nations” And if the Christ is not the one who came under Herod and Caesar Augustus, Jacob our father is a liar, and Moses is a liar, he who wrote Genesis, where the prophecy of Jacob can be found, and Daniel the prophet is also a liar with the angel Gabriel who talked to him about the time of the coming Christ. And the Holy Spirit, himself, who spoke by the prophets, also lies if one follows the reasoning of those who do not believe in the Christ and say that he has not yet come. And one sees the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah regarding them, “They have angered the Holy Spirit and he has become their enemy.” For in truth, the Holy Spirit has turned away from us, the Jews, for otherwise we would not be hobbled by the feet by the other nations for 640 years. For since the Jews our fathers crucified the Christ, until now we have been the slaves and under the yoke of all the nations. That the Holy Spirit is the enemy of those who do not believe in the Christ, Joseph, the wise Jew said, when the Christ was crucified, the voices of the saints were heard in the Temple, saying “Let us go, we stay her no more.” And “the veil of the Temple ripped from top to bottom.” Moreover, the Romans ravaged all of Judea, and divine justice burned against all the Jews who were found there. As for those who believed in the Christ before and after the crucifixion, a divine vision appeared to them that told them to retreat and inhabit beyond the Jordan in a place called Pella. When the Romans and took over all the East, they caused the Jews to perish in every town and village, but they did not approach the believers in Pella.

23. Those of the circumcison spoke up and said, “You have edified us brother, may God bless you! For often we have fallen into deep distress, asking ourselves if we had not strayed in being baptized. Do us a service, sir Jacob, on yet this point: when we hear the Gospel saying that the Christ has risen from the dead, we are happy; but when we hear that he was injured and beaten, and he died, we say that this was not the Christ….

35. …Those of the circumcision spoke up, and saying to Jacob: You have made us rejoice, sir Jacob, and we thank you. But we pray you to take a few more pains to heal us: how did the Christ ascend to heaven in his body, like the Christians say? Because we don’t believe it; it is unacceptable….

40. …Those of the circumcision spoke up, saying, Truly blessed is your soul which was deemed worthy of such charisma; for your teaching comes from the Holy Spirit. But why didn’t you teach this to the people before, why didn’t you want to even hear anyone speak about the Christ, like you say?

Jacob responded, “Because, in truth, my brothers, I was led astray by the devil and I hated Christ and never wanted to hear about the prophecies relating to him. And I even did injury to the Christians. When Phocas was emperor at Constantinople, I delivered the Christians to the Blues saying that they were Greens, and I called them Jews and bastards; and when the Greens, under the orders of Kroukis, burned the Mese, and spent a bad quarter of an hour, again as a Blue, I brutalized the Christians, insulting them as Greens and accusing them of being arsons and Manicheans. And at Antioche, when Bonosos reprimanded the Greens and massacred them, I went to Antioche as a Blue and partisan of he emperor, I beat the Christians because they were Greens, treating them as rebels. And when the Greens dragged corpse of Bonosos to Constantinople, I helped them with all of my heart, because he was a Christian. I treated Christians like Pagans, thinking I was serving God. I was young, and well built, about 24 years old, and unthinking; wherever I heard that there was a fight, I ran there. In return for my bad actions, the merciful God, the God of my father Abraham, hobbled me for my own good, and as I told you, made me a Christian by force. And God inspired my heart to examine the holy scriptures, and I discovered that it is truly the Christ who has come under the reign of Caesar Augustus, who was born in Bethlehem of Judea from the holy Mary, the daughter of Joachim, issue from the tribe of Judah.

41. One of those of the circumcision, named Isaakios, spoke up indignantly and said, “Truly, you will not prove to me that Mary comes from the tribe of Judah, but you have strayed, and you lead us all astray, and I do not believe you.”

Jacob responded, “Truly our own people, the Jews, have stiffened their neck and become rebels and enemies of God. If the Christians caught wind of what you say, wouldn’t they burn you?”

Isaakios responded and said, “In my opinion, you will never say the least bit of ill against me to the Christians. Don’t I know, unfortunate and miserable Jacob, what you did to the Christians at Ta Makellou and at the port of Julian in Constantinople, and all the Christians that you caused to perish at the coast at Pylai, at Pythia, at Cyzique, at Charax, at Aigeai and at Ptolemais? I am going to tell them and they will kill you.”

Jacob responded, “By the Name of the Most High God, I never killed a man, I only dragged the body of Bonosos with the Christians. Thinking back, I exchanged many a blow with Christians thinking I served the God of Israel.”…..

43.And Isaakios said again, “Sir Jacob, I would like to tell you something. I am afraid that you will become angry and will betray me to the Christians; truly they would burn me!”

And Jacob said, “By the God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, there’s no danger that I would ever speak ill of my brothers the ex-Hebrews. It is for that that we mutually swore that no one would write this to show the Christians; and it is for this that we are meeting in an isolated house, doors barred, so that no one know anything but God alone, and that what we say fall into oblivion, that we ourselves would know no more of what we said.

And we stopped there, and all retired in peace that day, like all other days. And I, Joseph, truly and before God, not knowing whether or not to believe in Christ, despite the promise that I took not to write, I decided with the permission of God, to consign by writing all that was said by Jacob and those of the circumcision. And by my son, Symon, I caused it to be noted down on tablets and scraps throughout the discussion, through a window, going to a neighboring house, where I had hidden my son Symon, and we wrote. Very often Isaakios said to me, “Why do you constantly go out?” And I responded, “Forgive me, but I have diarrhea and cannot hold it in.” And I wrote to see if I had not been led astray in being baptized and becoming a Christian.

Part II

4)….All those of the circumcision…said, “Truly this (Christianity) is the path of life, and all those who adhere to it go into life whereas those who abandon it go to death and eternal punishment. For the Law and the prophets proclaim the holy Trinity; we recognize the God Almighty, and the Word of God, he who has come upon the prophets, and the Holy Spirit.”

5. Me, Joseph, who notes and consigns this to writing, spoke up and I said to them, “Why, therefore, do you not annul the vow that we have taken, that the Christians should know nothing?”

And Jacob said, “No brothers, let no one reveal anything to the Christians, for they observe a grandiose faith, exact, and holy, one of orthodox dogmas. And they say that the Son and the Holy Spirit are consubstantial with the Father, and they have other surprising and venerable doctrines that we haven’t yet understood, and one must fear lest they make us anathema for heresy. For God has sent his Spirit on all the flesh of the nations, as God said by the prophet Joel, and they have a very exacting faith, as it is written. God said in effect, via Isaiah, “My servants will be given a new name that will be blessed throughout the earth, for they will bless the true God, and those who swear will do so by the name of the true God. For they will forget their first tribulation,” which is to say, the diabolic straying after idols. We, the ex-Jews, we have not even learned the rudiments of the faith of Christ; the Christians, they have anathematized and exiled bishops, and patriarchs for little deviations.

6. Those of the circumcision responded and said, “You teach us well, father; but comfort us again, and give us cause for rejoicing through the prophets by revealing even more testimonies about the Passion of the Christ…..

Part III

1. Five days later Ioustos, a non-baptized Jew arrived from the East, a cousin of Isaakios; Isaakios received him in his home. And he reprimanded Isaakios in these terms: “You should not have been baptized, for the Christ has not come.”

Isaakios said to him, “Sir Ioustos, in truth I was deeply afflicted because of my baptism, and I had become despairing about it. But there is an ex-Jew named Jacob whom I think speaks by the Holy Spirit; and he has shown us by the Law and the prophets that the one who has come is indeed the Christ.”

Ioustos replied to him, “As if I didn’t know this Jacob, son of Thanoumas, thief and brigand of the highways, the one who did the Christians great injury during the time of the emperor Phocas and Bonosos! Show him to me and I’ll prove he’s been led astray and that he’s an enemy of God and that those who were baptized have been led astray.”

And we, those of the circumcision, we were overcome and beaten listening to him. Theodore said, “Sir Joseph, I think that we are in a bad position, for if Ioustos proves that Jacob has been led astray, we’re in a pretty pickle.” Ioustos sowed trouble among all the e-Jews and they were conflicted and filled with sorrow.

2. And after a certain time, Jacob came to the place were we were gathered and he brought those who usually came, those who were reflecting on the holy scriptures and who, he said, cherished God. Filled with shame, they said to themselves, “It is wrong not to have put down in writing the bits of wisdom that flowed from Jacob’s mouth so that Ioustos could also read them; he would have surely learned the truth about the question whether we have been led astray in being baptized or if we have been saved, as Sir Jacob says.”

I, Jacob, spoke up and said to them: “As true as if before God, my son Symeon and I have consigned them to writing; but keep the secret for the moment and do not tell anyone.”

And those of the circumcision gathered around Jacob, sad and afflicted. Jacob said, “What’s wrong with you? I see you depressed.”

Isaakios responded, “Yes, truly we are greatly afflicted. My coulsin Ioustos has come from the East and says that those who were baptized have been led astray because the Christ has not yet come.”

Jacob responded and said to them, “Truly, I know this mister Ioustos very well, his brother Abraamios and their father, Sir Samouelos are knowledgeable in the holy scripture. I learned a lot from their father, the blessed Samouelos; it was he who taught me the prophets, which allowed me to recognize the Christ. I ask you to go find him and bring him here so that he may profit us, for he is well versed in scripture; he is a great scholar.”

Isaakios said, “If you want, I’ll bring him.”

Jacob said, “Please do so, make him come so that God may teach us by everything that could inspire him.”

And Isaakios went out and found him in the midst of studying and taking notes against the Christ and the Jews who had been baptized, supposing that they had been left astray since the Christ had not come yet. Isaakios said to him, “Mister Ioustos, Mister Jacob wants to greet you.”

Ioustos responded, “As for me, I don’t want to see him, for I’m afraid we would come to blows and that the Christians would hear of it and they would do something bad to me. But if I were at Sykamina or at Ptolemais, I would demonstrate according to the Law and the prophets, that the Christ has not yet come, neither has the moment of baptism.”

Isaakios responded to him, saying, “Don’t be fearful about that; we have sworn together that the Christians will know nothing about it. It’s for this reason that he teaches us in a secluded place; because Jacob himself does not want the Christians to catch wind of this. He too is very afraid of them, and he doesn’t want them knowing.”

And Ioustos said to him, “Let’s go and I will show that you, the baptized, you are in error and that Jacob is a devil, a sycophant who greatly misleads you.”

And Isaakios said to him, “Sir Ioustos, it’s already 10:00, the evening. But if you really want,, I’ll go talk to Jacob this evening, and tomorrow we will gather in this secret place, so that the Christians, or anybody else except God himself and those of us who have been coming, know nothing, even were you to cry out, and we keep this secret.”

Ioustos said, “You’re right.”

Isaakios went to talk to Jacob.

3. Ioustos did not sleep at night, examining the divine scriptures and taking notes against the baptized ones, to show that they had been led astray. And on Thursday morning, Jacob and the others gathered at the house where they always met. Ioustos went with Isaakios, holding sheets to give battle. Jacob perceived him and said, “God has caused you to come for good, my father and my master, Sir Ioustos, who fears God, sit down, I pray you.”

And Ioustos sat down and said, “I have found you for ill, my children and discipleswho don’t fear God and whom you have made apostates.”

Jacob responded, “Peace, mister Ioustos.”

Ioustos responded, “Truly I cannot rest in peace when you, the rejected apostate and abomination of the Jews, you come posing as a scholar grace à your calumnies.”

Jacob responded, saying, “In fact you speak the truth, once I was a rejected apostate, an abomination, a blind man, and a calumniator, ignorant of the Most High God, in that you speak the truth and are a prophet. But it is the Most High himself, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and of the prophets, who does everything for the good (of men), who hobbled me and permitted that I be arrested, baptizes, and that I become a Christian by force. I wept, prostrated myself, I fasted a great deal and examined the holy scriptures; and I acquired through them, the certainty that the Christ announced by the Law and the prophets, “he who comes in the name of the Lord,” is none other than he who was born in “Bethlehem of Judea,” from the holy Mary under the reign of Caesar Augustus, and he who does not recognize the Christ and does not believe in him is an apostate, a bastard, and is anathema.

4. Ioustos responded, saying, “You insult me, miserable Jacob. Wasn’t my father, the blessed Saouelos, the one who was your master in the divine scriptures?”

Jacob said, “I don’t insult you, God forbid, but it is the Holy Spirit, ‘who has spoken through the prophets’ who insults and anathematizes those who do not recognize the Christ.”

So, furious, Ioustos, got up and threw his turban around Jacob’s neck, saying, “Truly, I will strangle you if you don’t show me through the holy scriptures that it is us, the unbaptized who have strayed.”

Issakios and Theodore stood up and said to Ioustos, “Truly, Sir Ioustos, this is unworthy of a scholar.”

And I, Joseph, I went out frequently and I noted that with my son Symeon, and Ioustos said to me, “Where are you constantly going, bastard? You want to deliver me to the Christians? In truth, if you say anything whatsoever against me to the Christians, I will have you all burnt and will say that you abuse the Christ.”

I, Joseph, said, I have diarrhea and cannot hold it in, Sir Ioustos, don’t get upset if I go out.”

Ioustos said, “Give me a week in order to collect my thoughts and I am going to show you that the Christ has not yet come and it is not yet time for the holy baptism.”

And we all retired that day. It was decided to reconvene a week later and that there would be a great debate from the beginning, in order to decide whether or not to believe. Isaakios took Ioustos home and gave him an isolated room; and this one burned night and day taking notes in order to show that the Christ has not yet come and it is not yet time for the holy baptism.

Part IV

5. “Sir Ioustos, we’ve heard that you are a great scholar and that you fear God. What do you say to the words of Jacob?”

Ioustos responded, “By the holy name of God, that he says the truth and that his words come to him from the Holy Spirit. And I believe that God is merciful until the very end, not wanting the Jews to perish, who are always resisting God himself, he ordered that the Jews be baptized at least by force and that they come to the light. As David also said, ‘Wash me fully of my iniquity and purify me of my sin, wash me and I will be whiter than snow.’ And Isaiah said, ‘Wash yourselves and become pure.’ And again the Lord spoke through Ezechiel: ‘I will pour pure water on you, and you will be purified of your sins.’ And I well believe that the Christ is indeed he who has come. For I will tell you the exact truth.

At Ptolemais, when the Christians fled because of the arrival of the Persians, the Jews took advantage of it by burning the churches of the Christians and pillaging their houses, and they molested and killed many Christians. It was thusly that they seized a certain Leontios, a cleric of Kaparsa, and they wanted to kill him because he was very Christian and hated the Jews. He was afraid and in order not to die, he denied Christ and became a Jew. While passing by, a Christian subdeacon saw him seated in front of the synagogue…and he said to him, ‘Sir Leontios, how is it that you were once the herald of Christ and now you deny him?’ Leontios shook himself, and was seized by remorse and went and hanged himself in the house of Gemoullos along the coast, bordering the Samaritan quarter of Ptolemais. And we, the Jews, were greatly upset about this, for we were happy to see a cleric judaize against the Christians. The head of our Jewish community saw a dream seven nights in a row: the churches that the Jews had burned were rebuilt in gold and pearls and shone with light, whereas our synagogue which was located at the port of Ptolemais was destroyed down to its foundations, flooded in blood and in a fetid swamp. The priest swore that the same dream afflicted him each of the seven nights. There was at Ptolemais, a God-fearing Jew named Issac, whom we held to be a true man of justice, and he said, ‘Truly brothers, the fact that our priest has seen the same dream seven times signifies for us Jews damnation until the end of the world, and that the Christ who has come, he whom the Christians adore, is the king of Israel.’ Five Jews troubled by what he said, feared lest this story spread among the people and the Jews would stray; at night they entered Isaac’s house and suffocated him – everyone of his household was dead, and he lived alone – so well that everyone thought he had died a natural death. As true as before the Lord, one of them who killed him revealed it to me in seeing me struggle for our people against the Christians. And we se that the forth beast, Romania, has fallen and is torn by the nations, nonetheless it is necessary to wait for the 10 horns.”

Everyone returned home.

16. Ioustos spoke up and said, “You speak the truth, and this here is the great salvation: to believe in the Christ. For I am going to confess the whole truth, Sir Jacob. My brother Abraames wrote to me of a false prophet who has appeared (Slavic adds: among the Saracens). ‘When the Candidate was killed by the Saracens, I was in Caesarea,’ – said Abraames to me – ‘and I went by boat to Sykamina; it was said that the Candidate had been killed. And we the Jews, we were very joyful. It was said that a prophet had appeared, coming with the Saracens, and that he proclaimed the arrival of the Annointed Christ who was to come. And I (Abraames), having arrived at Sykamina, I stopped at the house of an old man well versed in scripture, and I said to him, ‘What do you think of the prophet who has appeared with the Saracens?’ And he responded, groaning deeply. ‘It is a false prophet: the prophets, do they come armed from head to toe? Truly the events of these last days are the works of disorder, and I fear that the first Christ who has come whom the Christians adore, might well be the envoy of God, whereas we, we await Hermolaos instead. Isaiah said in effect that the Jews would have a perverted and hardened heart until the whole earth was laid waste. But Abraames, gather information about this prophet who has appeared.’ And I, Abraames, pushed by worry, I learned from those who had encountered him, that there was nothing authentic about this supposed prophet: he did nothing but massacre. He said also that he held the keys to paradise, which is unbelievable.’ Behold what my brother Abraames from the East wrote to me. And I, Ioustos, I believe in the Christ born of the holy Mary; I believe that it was he whom the Most High God sent upon the earth, the savior and king of Israel…”