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.

753. 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.

754. Homo existens te Deum facit.149

Scriptum est, Dii estis, et non potest solvi Scriptura.150

Haec infirmitas non est ad vitam et est ad mortem.151

Lazarus dormit, et deinde dixit: Lazarus mortuus est.152

755. The apparent discrepancy of the Gospels.

756. 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?

757. 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.

758. 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, eve