Tertullian — An Answer to the Jews 13

Therefore, since the sons of Israel affirm that we err in receiving the Christ , who is already come, let us put in a demurrer against them out of the Scriptures themselves, to the effect that the Christ who was the theme of prediction is come; albeit by the times of Daniel's prediction we have proved that the Christ has come already who was the theme of announcement. Now it behooved Him to be born in Bethlehem of Judah. For thus it is written in the prophet : And you, Bethlehem , are not the least in the leaders of Judah: for out of you shall issue a Leader who shall feed my People Israel . But if hitherto he has not been born, what leader was it who was thus announced as to proceed from the tribe of Judah , out of Bethlehem ? For it behooves him to proceed from the tribe of Judah and from Bethlehem .

But we perceive that now none of the race of Israel has remained in Bethlehem ; and (so it has been) ever since the interdict was issued forbidding any one of the Jews to linger in the confines of the very district, in order that this prophetic utterance also should be perfectly fulfilled: Your land is desert, your cities burnt up by fire, — that is, (he is foretelling) what will have happened to them in time of war your region strangers shall eat up in your sight, and it shall be desert and subverted by alien peoples.

And in another place it is thus said through the prophet : The King with His glory you shall see, — that is, Christ, doing deeds of power in the glory of God the Father; and your eyes shall see the land from afar, Isaiah 33:17 — which is what you do, being prohibited, in reward of your deserts, since the storming of Jerusalem, to enter into your land; it is permitted you merely to see it with your eyes from afar: your soul , he says, shall meditate terror, Isaiah 33:18 — namely, at the time when they suffered the ruin of themselves. How, therefore, will a leader be born from Judea , and how far will he proceed from Bethlehem , as the divine volumes of the prophets do plainly announce; since none at all is left there to this day of (the house of) Israel , of whose stock Christ could be born?

Now, if (according to the Jews ) He is hitherto not come, when He begins to come whence will He be anointed? For the Law enjoined that, in captivity, it was not lawful for the unction of the royal chrism to be compounded. Exodus 30:22-33 But, if there is no longer unction there as Daniel prophesied (for he says, Unction shall be exterminated ), it follows that they no longer have it, because neither have they a temple where was the horn from which kings were wont to be anointed. If, then, there is no unction, whence shall be anointed the leader who shall be born in Bethlehem ? Or how shall he proceed from Bethlehem , seeing that of the seed of Israel none at all exists in Bethlehem .