Why the law’s commonwealth gave way to the Gospel
If we must say at least a little about the difference between the order of life the Jews once followed under Moses and the one Christians now seek to achieve according to the teaching of Jesus, we shall say this. It was not fitting for the calling of the Gentiles, who are placed under the Romans, to live according to the law of Moses taken to the letter; nor, on the other hand, could the Jews of old have kept the structure of their commonwealth intact if, let us suppose, they had obeyed the way of life set by the Gospel.
For Christians could not, according to the law of Moses, put enemies to death, or those who had acted against the law and been judged deserving of death by fire or by stoning; seeing that not even the Jews, though they wish to, are able to carry out these things according to that law, as the law commanded. Again, if you forbid the Jews of that time, who had a commonwealth and a land of their own, to march out against their enemies, to go to war for their ancestral ways, and to put to death or in some way punish those who had committed adultery or murder or done anything like these, nothing is left but for them to be utterly destroyed all at once when their enemies attacked the nation, since their own law would have hamstrung them and prevented them from defending themselves against their enemies.
And providence, which of old gave the Law and now has given the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not wishing the Jewish order to prevail any longer, destroyed their city and their temple, and the service of God that was carried on at the temple through sacrifices and the prescribed worship. And just as, not wishing those things to be carried on any longer, it destroyed them, in the same way it has made the Christian cause grow, and day by day that cause has advanced in numbers and now also in freedom of speech; and this although countless obstacles have arisen to keep the teaching of Jesus from being sown across the world. But since it was God who willed that those from the Gentiles too should be helped by the teaching of Jesus the Christ, every human plan against Christians has been brought down; and the more kings and rulers of nations and peoples everywhere humbled them, the more they multiplied “and grew exceedingly strong” (Exodus 1:7, 12).
Greek
Εἰ δὲ χρὴ κἂν ὀλίγα περὶ τῆς διαφόρου πολιτείας εἰπεῖν, ἥντινα Ἰουδαῖοι κατὰ Μωϋσέα πρότερον ἐπολιτεύοντο, καὶ ἣν Χριστιανοὶ νῦν κατὰ τὴν Ἰησοῦ διδασκαλίαν βούλονται κατορθοῦν, φήσομεν ὅτι οὔτε τῇ κλήσει τῶν ἐθνῶν ἥρμοζε κατὰ τὸν Μωϋσέως ὡς πρὸς τὸ γράμμα πολιτεύεσθαι νόμον, ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίοις τεταγμένων, οὔτε τοῖς πάλαι Ἰουδαίοις οἷόν τ᾿ ἦν τὸ σύστημα τῆς πολιτείας ἔχειν ἀκαθαίρετον. εἰ καθ᾿ ὑπόθεσιν τῇ κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον πολιτείᾳ ἐπείθοντο. ἀναιρέσει μὲν γὰρ πολεμίων ἢ τῶν παρὰ τὸν νόμον πεποιηκότων καὶ ἀξίων κριθέντων τῆς διὰ πυρὸς ἢ λίθων ἀναιρέσεως οὐχ οἷόν τ᾿ ἦν Χριστιανοὺς χρῆσθαι κατὰ τὸν Μωϋσέως νόμον. εἴ γε οὐδ᾿ οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι θέλοντες κατ᾿ ἐκεῖνον δύνανται ταῦτα, ὡς ὁ νόμος προσέταξεν. ἐπιτελεῖν. πάλιν τε αὖ ἐὰν ἀνέλῃς ἀπὸ τῶν τότε Ἰουδαίων. σύστημα ἴδιον πολιτείας καὶ χώρας ἐχόντων, τὸ ἐπεξιέναι τοῖς πολεμίοις καὶ στρατεύεσθαι ὑπὲρ τῶν πατρίων καὶ ἀναιρεῖν ἢ ὅπως ποτὲ κολάζειν τοὺς μοιχεύσαντας ἢ φονεύσαντας ἤ τι τῶν τοιούτοις παραπλησίων πεποιηκότας, οὐδὲν λείπεται ἢ τὸ ἄρδην αὐτοὺς ἀθρόως ἀθρόως ἀπολέσθαι. ἐπιτιθεμένων τῶν πολεμίων τῷ ἔθνει, ὡς ὑπὸ τοῦ ἰδίου νόμου ἐκνενευρισμένων καὶ κωλυομένων ἀμύνεσθαι τοὺς πολεμίους. καὶ μὴ βουλομένη γε ἡ πάλαι μὲν τὸν νόμον δεδωκυῖα πρόνοια νῦν δὲ τὸ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εὐαγγέλιον κρατεῖν ἔτι τὰ Ἰουδαίων καθεῖλεν αὐτῶν τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὸν ναὸν καὶ τὴν παρὰ τῷ ναῷ διὰ θυσιῶν καὶ τῆς ἀναγεγραμμένης λατρείας θεραπείαν τοῦ θεοῦ. ὥσπερ δ᾿ ἐκεῖνα μὴ βουλομένη ἐπιτελεῖσθαι ἔτι καθεῖλε, τὸν τρόπον τὸν αὐτὸν τὰ Χριστιανῶν ηὔξησε καὶ ὁσημέραι εἰς πλῆθος ἤδη δὲ καὶ παῤῥησίαν ἐπιδέδωκε. καίτοι γε μυρίων ὅσων κωλυμάτων γενομένων πρὸς τὸ μὴ ἐπισπαρῆναι τὴν Ἰησοῦ διδασκαλίαν τῇ οἰκουμένῃ. ἀλλ᾿ ἐπεὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ βουλόμενος καὶ τοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν ὠφεληθῆναι διὰ τῆς Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Χριστοῦ διδασκαλίας, πᾶσα μὲν ἀνθρωπίνη βουλὴ κατὰ Χριστιανῶν καθῃρέθη, ὅσῳ (δ᾿) αὐτοὺς ἐταπείνουν βασιλεῖς καὶ ἐθνῶν ἡγούμενοι καὶ δῆμοι πανταχοῦ, τοσούτῳ πλείους ἐγίνοντο „καὶ κατίσχυον σφόδρα σφόδρα.“