Lactantius — Divine Institutes 4.20
Setting out therefore into Galilee—for he did not wish to show himself to the Jews, lest he bring them to repentance and heal the impious again—when the disciples were gathered once more he opened the letters of holy Scripture, that is the secrets of the prophets. Before he suffered these could in no way be perceived, because they announced him and his passion. That is why Moses and those same prophets call the law given to the Jews a testament: because unless the testator has died, the testament can neither be confirmed nor can what is written in it be known, since it is closed and sealed. So unless Christ had undertaken death, the testament could not have been opened—that is, the mystery of God revealed and understood.
But all of Scripture is divided into two testaments. That which preceded the coming and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets—is called the old; but those writings composed after his resurrection are named the new testament. The Jews use the old, we the new; yet they are not different, because the new is the fulfillment of the old, and in both the same testator is Christ, who by undertaking death for us makes us heirs of the eternal kingdom, the people of the Jews having been cast off and disinherited. As Jeremiah the prophet witnesses when he speaks thus: “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will complete for the house of Israel and the house of Judah a new testament, not according to the testament I arranged for their fathers…” Elsewhere he says likewise that he has left his house and handed his inheritance into enemies’ hands—hating not the inheritance itself (the heavenly kingdom) but the heirs who stood against him ungrateful and impious, who sacrificed him like a beast and spoke sentences of death and cross against him. When he says he will complete a new testament for the house of Judah, he shows that the old testament given through Moses was not perfect, but that which was to be given through Christ would be complete. And the house of Judah and Israel does not mean the Jews whom he cast off, but us who, called by him from the nations, have succeeded into their place by adoption and are called children of the Jews—as the Sibyl also declares.
And that this race would come, Isaiah teaches, where the highest Father speaks to the Son: “I the Lord God have called you in justice, and I will hold your hand and strengthen you, and I have given you for a testament of my race, for a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to lead out those bound from chains and those sitting in darkness from the prison-house.” Since therefore we before, as if blind and shut in the prison of folly, sat in darkness not knowing God and the truth, we have been enlightened by him who adopted us by his testament and, freed from evil chains and brought into the light of wisdom, enrolled us in the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom.
Latin
Profectus ergo in Galilaeam — noluit enim se Iudaeis ostendere, ne adduceret eos in paenitentiam atque inpios resanaret —, discipulis iterum congregatis scripturae sanctae litteras id e-t prophetarum arcana patefecit. quae antequam pateretur perspici nullo modo poterant. quia ipsum passionemque eius adnuntiabant. idcirco Moyses et idem ipsi prophetae legem quae Iudaeis data est testamentum uocant, quia nisi testator mortuus fuerit, nec confirmari testamentum potest nec sciri quid in eo scriptum sit, quia clausum et obsignatum est. itaque nisi Christus mortem suscepisset, aperiri testamentum id est reuelari et intellegi mysterium dei non potuisset uerum scriptura omnis in duo testamenta diuisa est illut quod aduentum passionemque Christi antecessit, id est lex et prophetae, uetus dicitur, ea uero quae post resurrectionem eius scripta sunt, nouum testamentum nominatur. Iudaei uetere utuntur, nos nouo: sed tamen diuersa non sunt, quia nouum ueteris adinpletio est et in utroque idem testator est Christus, qui pro nobis morte suscepta nos heredes regni aeterni facit abdicato et exheredato populo Iudaeorum,
sicut Hieremias propheta testatur, cum loquitur talia: ecce dies ueniunt, dicit dominus, et consummabo domui Israhel et domui Iuda testamentum nouum, non secundum testamentum quod disposui patribus eorum in die, qua adprehendi manum eorum, ut educerem illos de terra Aegypti, quia ipsi non perseuerauerunt in testamento meo, et ego neclexi eos, dicit dominus. idem alio loco similiter ait: dereliqui domum meam, dimisi hereditatem meam in manus inimicorum eius. facta est hereditas mea mihi sicut leo in silua, dedit ipsa super me uocem suam, idcirco odiui eam. cum sit hereditas eius caeleste regnum, non utique ipsam hereditatem se dicit odisse, sed heredes, qui aduersus eum ingrati et inpii extiterunt. facta est inquit hereditas mea mihi sicut leo, id est praeda et deuoratio factus sum heredibus meis, qui me immolauerunt sicut pecus. dedit super me uocem suam, id est sententias aduersus me mortis crucisque dixerunt. nam quod superius ait consummaturum se domui Iuda testamentum nouum, ostendit uetus illut testamentum quod per Moysen datum est non fuisse perfectum, id autem quod per Christum dari haberet consummatum fore. domum autem Iuda et Israhel non utique Iudaeos significat, quos abdicauit, sed nos, qui ab eo conuocati ex gentibus in illorum locum adoptione successimus et appellamur filii Iudaeorum: quod declarat Sibylla, cum dicit: Ἰουδαίων μακάρων θεῖον γένος οὐρανιώνων . quod autem futurum esset id genus,
Esaias docet, apud quem pater summus ad filium loquitur dicens: ego dominus deus uocaui te in iustitiam, et tenebo manum tuam et confirmabo te, et dedi te in testamentum generis mei, in lucem gentium, aperire oculos caecorum, producere ex uinculis alligatos et de domo carceris sedentes in tenebris. cum igitur nos antea tamquam caeci et tamquam carcere stultitiae inclusi sederemus in tenebris ignorantes deum et ueritatem, inluminati ab eo sumus, qui nos testamento suo adoptauit et liberatos malis uinculis atque in lucem sapientiae productos in hereditatem regni caelestis adsciuit.