The Witness of Jews Who Believe and of Jews Who Deny

But if you would rather have this proved to you from representatives of the Jews, consider the Jewish people when, after their unhappy ignorance and wicked persecution, they were converted and acknowledged God here and there; and see whether they could not rightly say, “You are our God, and we did not know you.” But I will add something more, to prove it to you not only from those Jews who confess him but also from those who deny him. [a]

Ask those Jews who still remain in their unbelief whether they know God or believe in him. They will certainly confess that they both know him and believe in him. But on the other hand, ask them whether they believe in the Son of God. They will at once deny it and begin to blaspheme against him. You see, then, that the prophet said this of him of whom the Jews have always been ignorant and whom they do not know now, and not of him in whom they imagine they believe and whom they confess. And so those who come out of Judaism to the faith, after having been in ignorance, can very fittingly say, “You are our God, and we did not know you.” For those who were ignorant and then come to believe rightly say that they did not know him in whom until now they have not believed, and whom they strive not to know. For it is clear that those who come to confess him after their former ignorance say that formerly they did not know him whom up to now they had ignorantly denied.