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.

750. 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.

751. 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: Excaeca...[148]

752. 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.

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