Pascal's Pensées
Him; that He should leave Zion to reign in the centre of idolatry; that
nevertheless the Jews should continue for ever; that He should be of
Judah, and when there should be no longer a king.
SECTION XII
PROOFS OF JESUS CHRIST
736
... Therefore I reject all other religions. In that way I find an answer
to all objections. It is right that a God so pure should only reveal
Himself to those whose hearts are purified. Hence this religion is
lovable to me, and I find it now sufficiently justified by so divine a
morality. But I find more in it.
I find it convincing that, since the memory of man has lasted, it was
constantly announced to men that they were universally corrupt, but that
a Redeemer should come; that it was not one man who said it, but
innumerable men, and a whole nation expressly made for the purpose, and
prophesying for four thousand years. This is a nation which is more
ancient than every other nation. Their books, scattered abroad, are four
thousand years old.
The more I examine them, the more truths I find in them: an entire
nation foretell Him before His advent, and an entire nation worship Him
after His advent; what has preceded and what has followed; in short,
people without idols and kings, this synagogue which was foretold, and
these wretches who frequent it, and who, being our enemies, are
admirable witnesses of the truth of these prophecies, wherein their
wretchedness and even their blindness are foretold.
I find this succession, this religion, wholly divine in its authority,
in its duration, in its perpetuity, in its morality, in its conduct, in
its doctrine, in its effects. The frightful darkness of the Jews was
foretold: _Eris palpans in meridie.[276] Dabitur liber scienti literas,
et dicet: Non possum legere._[277] While the sceptre was still in the
hands of the first foreign usurper, there is the report of the coming of
Jesus Christ.
So I hold out my arms to my _Redeemer_, who, having been foretold for
four thousand years, has come to suffer and to die for me on earth, at
the time and under all the circumstances foretold. By His grace, I await
death in peace, in the hope of being eternally united to Him. Yet I
live with joy, whether in the prosperity which it pleases Him to bestow
upon me, or in the adversity which He sends for my good, and which He
has taught me to bear by His example.
737
The prophecies having given different signs which should all happen at
the advent of the Messiah, it was necessary that all these signs should
occur at the same time. So it was necessary that the fourth monarchy
should have come, when the seventy weeks of Daniel were ended; and that
the sceptre should have then departed from Judah. And all this happened
without any difficulty. Then it was necessary that the Messiah should
come; and Jesus Christ then came, who was called the Messiah. And all
this again was without difficulty. This indeed shows the truth of the
prophecies.
738
The prophets foretold, and were not foretold. The saints again were
foretold, but did not foretell. Jesus Christ both foretold and was
foretold.
739
Jesus Christ, whom the two Testaments regard, the Old as its hope, the
New as its model, and both as their centre.
740
The two oldest books in the world are those of Moses and Job, the one a
Jew and the other a Gentile. Both of them look upon Jesus Christ as
their common centre and object: Moses in relating the promises of God to
Abraham, Jacob, etc., and his prophecies; and Job, _Quis mihi det
ut_,[278] etc. _Scio enim quod redemptor meus vivit_, etc.
741
The Gospel only speaks of the virginity of the Virgin up to the time of
the birth of Jesus Christ. All with reference to Jesus Christ.
742
_Proofs of Jesus Christ._
Why was the book of Ruth preserved?
Why the story of Tamar?
743
"Pray that ye enter not into temptation."[279] It is dangerous to be
tempted; and people are tempted because they do not pray.
_Et tu conversus confirma fratres tuos._ But before, _conversus Jesus
respexit Petrum_.
Saint Peter asks permission to strike Malchus, and strikes before
hearing the answer. Jesus Christ replies afterwards.
The word, _Galilee_, which the Jewish mob pronounced as if by chance, in
accusing Jesus Christ before Pilate, afforded Pilate a reason for
sending Jesus Christ to Herod. And thereby the mystery was accomplished,
that He should be judged by Jews and Gentiles. Chance was apparently the
cause of the accomplishment of the mystery.
744
Those who have a difficulty in believing seek a reason in the fact that
the Jews do not believe. "Were this so clear," say they, "why did the
Jews not believe?" And they almost wish that they had believed, so as
not to be kept back by the example of their refusal. But it is their
very refusal that is the foundation of our faith. We should be much less
disposed to the faith, if they were on our side. We should then have a
more ample pretext. The wonderful thing is to have made the Jews great
lovers of the things foretold, and great enemies of their fulfilment.
745
The Jews were accustomed to great and striking miracles, and so, having
had the great miracles of the Red Sea and of the land of Canaan as an
epitome of the great deeds of their Messiah, they therefore looked for
more striking miracles, of which those of Moses were only the patterns.
746
The carnal Jews and the heathen have their calamities, and Christians
also. There is no Redeemer for the heathen, for they do not so much as
hope for one. There is no Redeemer for the Jews; they hope for Him in
vain. There is a Redeemer only for Christians. (See _Perpetuity_.)
747
In the time of the Messiah the people divided themselves. The spiritual
embraced the Messiah, and the coarser-minded remained to serve as
witnesses of Him.
748
"If this was clearly foretold to the Jews, how did they not believe it,
or why were they not destroyed for resisting a fact so clear?"
I reply: in the first place, it was foretold both that they would not
believe a thing so clear, and that they would not be destroyed. And
nothing is more to the glory of the Messiah; for it was not enough that
there should be prophets; their prophets must be kept above suspicion.
Now, etc.
749
If the Jews had all been converted by Jesus Christ, we should have none
but questionable witnesses. And if they had been entirely destroyed, we
should have no witnesses at all.
750
What do the prophets say of Jesus Christ? That He will be clearly God?
No; but that He is a God truly hidden; that He will be slighted; that
none will think that it is He; that He will be a stone of stumbling,
upon which many will stumble, etc. Let people then reproach us no longer
for want of clearness, since we make profession of it.
But, it is said, there are obscurities.--And without that, no one would
have stumbled over Jesus Christ, and this is one of the formal
pronouncements of the prophets: _Excæca_[280] ...
751
Moses first teaches the Trinity, original sin, the Messiah.
David: a great witness; a king, good, merciful, a beautiful soul, a
sound mind, powerful. He prophesies, and his wonder comes to pass. This
is infinite.
He had only to say that he was the Messiah, if he had been vain; for the
prophecies are clearer about him than about Jesus Christ. And the same
with Saint John.
752
Herod was believed to be the Messiah. He had taken away the sceptre from
Judah, but he was not of Judah. This gave rise to a considerable sect.
Curse of the Greeks upon those who count three periods of time.
In what way should the Messiah come, seeing that through Him the sceptre
was to be eternally in Judah, and at His coming the sceptre was to be
taken away from Judah?
In order to effect that seeing they should not see, and hearing they
should not understand, nothing could be better done.
753
_Homo existens te Deum facit.
Scriptum est, Dii estis, et non potest solvi Scriptura.
Hæc infirmitas non est ad vitam et est ad mortem.
Lazarus dormit, et deinde dixit: Lazarus mortuus est._[281]
754
The apparent discrepancy of the Gospels.[282]
755
What can we have but reverence for a man who foretells plainly things
which come to pass, and who declares his intention both to blind and to
enlighten, and who intersperses obscurities among the clear things which
come to pass?
756
The time of the first advent was foretold; the time of the second is not
so; because the first was to be obscure, and the second is to be
brilliant, and so manifest that even His enemies will recognise it. But,
as He was first to come only in obscurity, and to be known only of those
who searched the Scriptures ...
757
God, in order to cause the Messiah to be known by the good and not to be
known by the wicked, made Him to be foretold in this manner. If the
manner of the Messiah had been clearly foretold, there would have been
no obscurity, even for the wicked. If the time had been obscurely
foretold, there would have been obscurity, even for the good. For their
[goodness of heart] would not have made them understand, for instance,
that the closed _mem_ signifies six hundred years. But the time has been
clearly foretold, and the manner in types.
By this means, the wicked, taking the promised blessings for material
blessings, have fallen into error, in spite of the clear prediction of
the time; and the good have not fallen in error. For the understanding
of the promised blessings depends on the heart, which calls "good" that
which it loves; but the understanding of the promised time does not
depend on the heart. And thus the clear prediction of the time, and the
obscure prediction of the blessings, deceive the wicked alone.
758
[Either the Jews or the Christians must be wicked.]
759
The Jews reject Him, but not all. The saints receive Him, and not the
carnal-minded. And so far is this from being against His glory, that it
is the last touch which crowns it. For their argument, the only one
found in all their writings, in the Talmud and in the Rabbinical
writings, amounts only to this, that Jesus Christ has not subdued the
nations with sword in hand, _gladiumt uum, potentissime_.[283] (Is this
all they have to say? Jesus Christ has been slain, say they. He has
failed. He has not subdued the heathen with His might. He has not
bestowed upon us their spoil. He does not give riches. Is this all they
have to say? It is in this respect that He is lovable to me. I would not
desire Him whom they fancy.) It is evident that it is only His life
which has prevented them from accepting Him; and through this rejection
they are irreproachable witnesses, and, what is more, they thereby
accomplish the prophecies.
[By means of the fact that this people have not accepted Him, this
miracle here has happened. The prophecies were the only lasting miracles
which could be wrought, but they were liable to be denied.]
760
The Jews, in slaying Him in order not to receive Him as the Messiah,
have given Him the final proof of being the Messiah.
And in continuing not to recognise Him, they made themselves
irreproachable witnesses. Both in slaying Him, and in continuing to deny
Him, they have fulfilled the prophecies (Isa. lx; Ps. lxxi).
761
What could the Jews, His enemies, do? If they receive Him, they give
proof of Him by their reception; for then the guardians of the
expectation of the Messiah receive Him. If they reject Him, they give
proof of Him by their rejection.
762
The Jews, in testing if He were God, have shown that He was man.
763
The Church has had as much difficulty in showing that Jesus Christ was
man, against those who denied it, as in showing that he was God; and the