43. And they answered: "We implore your immortal sovereignty, now that we have come into its presence: We are willing to be persuaded, as we engage with them in discussions which Aphroditianus, your partner in the throne, will hear and [thereby] provide a speedy resolution on every subject."
44. And the king summoned Aphroditianus and said to him: "Indulge your good character by judging between the Jews and Christians. For because of your freedom from falsehood, they all choose you as judge." And he wrote to the bishops a letter running as follows: "I, the king of kings, having the magnificence of the celestial gods, write as follows to the priests of the Christians: Jacob and Pharas, the foremost of the Jews, have asked me to persuade you to have a dialogue with them and to arrive at full assurance regarding Christ, whether in fact he has come. Therefore, do not approach them as foreigners, but receive them as parts of your own body, so that they may become fellow-members with you [in one body]. For if this happens, the innermost ill-will will be weakened, [p. 29] and justice and pious simplicity, being glorified, will grant the peace that befits our times. Marthedredela kornakykola peplandereinak — which is translated: He who administers the heavenly powers has given this command to mortals."
45. Jacob and Pharas, the Jews who were mentioned earlier, came to the gathering along with the guileless Aphroditianus, and when all were seated, Aphroditianus said: "Beloved men, let us not come together with each other in striving and contentiousness, like enemies, but rather become one in purpose and receive the truthful oracles. Therefore, I urge you to interact with each other without rancor." Then he says to the Jews: "Tell us without imposture all that is contained in your Law. For I will know if you take away or add anything. So tell us, for what reason have you gathered here?"
46. Jacob and his companions said: "For us, the discussion is about the Christ who is born in Bethlehem: whether he has indeed come."
47. Aphroditianus said: "And how are you inclined, regarding him?" And they answered: "He has yet to come." Aphroditianus said: "When do you think he will be born?" The Jews said: "At the end of time." Aphroditianus said: "And what more is there for him to do, when time is done away with?" The Jews said: "That which your inspired wisdom said—restoring what is done away with."
48. Aphroditianus: "He will restore again what is done away with by his command and will? The story is incoherent. For it has nowhere been said that after the consummation of the world another such structure is to arise. Of this, your own prophet will convince you, saying: 'I shall send to you Elijah the Tishbite before the great day [p. 30] of the Lord comes...without coming, I shall smite the earth utterly.' Now then, if this one, whom you expect as Christ [i.e., Messiah], is Elijah, one who is not coming to restore but to smite, then we must also find out this: How is it that he is not called Christ but Elijah?—and is the one who was begotten in Tishbe begotten [also] in Bethlehem, as your ancestors understood the prophet? For the one who said, 'I shall send to you Elijah,' is different from the one who is sent, and since he said, 'Without coming, I shall smite the earth utterly' through that man , he first calls his audience to witness and then does away with this structure [i.e., the earth]. What then? Is Christ's birth then , or before that time? For whom would he be pleasing or useful?"
49. The Jews: "Christ and Elijah are two different figures. For our prophet Daniel beheld a stone for the king of the Babylonians, and it became a great mountain."
50. Aphroditianus: "You have recklessly refuted yourselves, not understanding your own bulwark of protection. For this text was brought from Babylon to Persia, and I know it perfectly. It reads as follows: 'And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will raise up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed'—and [p. 31] 'This [kingdom] shall never be destroyed'—and 'The king saw that a stone was cut without hands from a mountain, and the stone that crushed the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.' So after those four kingdoms, the God of heaven raised a kingdom which he promised would be indestructible and without a successor—which is the stone that became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Thus, you have cited this text against yourselves!"
51. The Jews: "What four kingdoms?"
Aphroditianus: "The glorious and renowned ones, which came in succession one after the other: the Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians, and the fourth one, the bandit-like one that was difficult to attack, the Macedonian [kingdom]. These [first] three were powerful, and this [fourth] with its rashness has been added to the three. For it grew up after these [first] kingdoms.
The Jews: "We assert that the iron kingdom is that of Augustus and his successors."
52. Aphroditianus: "Whom did the kingdom of Augustus and the rest pulverize and subdue? They both defeated and were defeated. The 'pulverizing' [kingdom] is undefeatable. How do these [i.e., the Romans] subdue anyone, when they themselves all also give tribute and gifts to this kingdom? And you should understand the statement, 'In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will raise up a kingdom,' to mean that it appeared between them . If, then, you believe that there is a Christ, look for him at that point in time, for you will not find him afterwards. For just as your ancestors, keeping hold of their past expectation, missed its proper time, even so will it be with you as well. You should see the prophet's words, 'The stone, which the builders rejected, this has become the head [stone] of the corner,' not as still pointing to the future, but as already having taken place.
"Why should I unfold the Hebrews' prophecies and not our own? Ophianus [p. 32] Pertillaeus spoke in his 'Laws' as follows: 'Oh my! How the Caspian Gate has been adorned—it has received a mountain stone, which hands did not hew out, but rather grace discovered, and narrowed the whole Gate all around by means of it. Not only did it strengthen it, but it also opened it when it had been closed—the stone having become way and door. The door leads to an august door, and the way draws one to a pure way, as all those who see it shout: "Great is the dominion of the gods, whose will for action is more easily realized."' And Elibatus, who wrote down innumerable laws, when speaking On Eucles towards the end , says, 'A frightful cloud settled upon a mountain and cast a single stone upon the earth, and strengthened all its foundations. And how shall a single stone prevail over the entire [earth]? Did not one God alone create the universe?' And Trachelaphius, speaking Against the Falsely-Named , demonstrates his mastery also in the following solid reasoning: 'Who deceived those who trust in Dionysus so as to say about him that he, being forever without a beginning, was born from an unravished virgin? They clothe him with another's dignity. For the one without a beginning, being of the substance that is forever without beginning, takes hold of mortal substance without receiving it as a violation. For that which he formed, he shall not consider an violation, when he takes it up. There, a virgin—[p. 33] unsullied in her body and having no falsehood in her tongue—supplies virginal flesh; [this process is the] activation of all grace dwelling within [her]. I marvel at the flux-bound taking hold of the flux-free—knowing this: that some have been deified on account of their promulgation of laws; others, because of their nobility of life and their conspicuous purity in other respects, because of which it is fitting to honor them; but to go after heavenly honors is beyond all audacity and above all blasphemy.'"
53. The Jews: "We are not familiar with these things, Lord, nor do we have them in our knowledge."
Aphroditianus: "With your own prophets, you are not in agreement; your laws, you falsify. Produce for us simply your laws concerning women, if indeed you will obey them ."
The Jews: "Custom is law. It was established for us, and we are not able to overturn ancestral practices."
Aphroditianus: "I too know that, as you hold fast to your own habits, you do not accept the true religion. For, as you safeguard your own glory, you do not subject yourselves to the glory of your God."
54. The Jews: "What, then, is your command? Are we to become Christians and fall into heresies?"
Aphroditianus: "So you are not acting as heresiarchs in living by your own customs? But when the bishops themselves are sitting [nearby], why should I wish to give an account of them—in particular when having a discussion with you , who appear to magnify yourselves by your own defeat?"
The Jews said: "Let the crowd of bishops speak to us! For we know that we will not be at a loss before them."
55. The bishops: "You have done well to come. We do not stand apart from the God who said, 'Take heart, for I have defeated the world.' "
The bishops, again: "We shall set before them a challenge which shall by all means vanquish them."
The Jews: "Propose it with boldness!"
56. The bishops: "In Jeremiah, he says: 'This is our God; there shall not be reckoned any other in addition to him. He searched out every path of knowledge and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel his beloved. After this, [p. 34] he appeared upon the earth and lived with humans.' "
57. Aphroditianus: "What can Jacob and Pharas, the Rabbis of the priests, say in answer to this?"