Dialogue against the Jews

Tenth Titulus

TENTH TITULUS OSES: I WANT YOU to return to the subject matter and, I beg you, explain to me the other parts of your faith. Since you believe, then, that Christ was both God and man, why did he allow himself to be crucified and why did he not release himself from the hands of the Jews? How was the power of his omnipotence so diminished? petrus: He could have protected and safeguarded himself well enough, if he had wished, but he endured this of his own free will for the sake of the salvation of his own, although it was unwelcome to the flesh that was of this world. For the Word of God assumed flesh for no other reason than to free from the devil’s captivity those who believed in him and who would yet believe in him. moses: From your response, certainly, many questions arise. First, what is the devil; second, why did human beings fall into his power; third, why did God free human beings from his control when he had permitted them to fall under it; fourth, why, when he wanted to redeem them, did he not accomplish this by his power, but instead preferred to become incarnate and to suffer? petrus: Since you have asked many questions at once, and one cannot respond completely to many at the same time, I want you to ask them separately, if you please, and then I will respond with what I think. moses: At the outset, then, I would like to hear about the devil, and what he is. petrus: The devil, O Moses, is a very subtle and spiritual matter [res], and he previously belonged to the orders of good angels. Two of the chief angels of his order are called Huza and Hazazel1 in Hebrew, whereas they are called Haroth and Ma220 1. A great deal of confusion reigns in rabbinic sources over the meaning of the term or name Azazel. But in the first book of Enoch (6.4), Azazel (or Azael) roth in the Arabic language.2 And this devil was burdened by his sin and iniquity and was rendered somewhat heavier, as it were. Thus, having fallen from the summit of the heavens, he descended below gradually, and his habitation is here below the firmament. moses: In fact it is written among us that Huza and Hazazel are devils, and are called leaders among them, but here I would rather hear with pleasure how you can demonstrate through philosophical reason that they exist, or how they exist. petrus: At the outset, you have to know that there are nine parts to that art which is called necromancy [nigromantia].3 The first four of these treat the four elements, and how we can operate in them naturally [phisice], whereas the remaining five treat only of what can be effected by the invocation of evil spirits. These evil spirits are called devils by humans. moses: In fact, perhaps these devils were never, as you say, good angels, but were always evil spirits. petrus: This is certainly untrue. For God made only what is good, since one reads in the truest Scripture: “God saw all the things he had made, and they were very good.”4 But they became evil because they performed evil. moses: Since we know already that the devil exists, both is one of the leaders of the angels who desired the daughters of men. Huza (or Uzza) is identical with Shemhazai, who is another angel fallen with Azazel. See Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, 1: 149–51. 2. Qur’an 2.102. 3. Necromancy was listed among the various mantic or divinatory arts, whose origins were attributed to the devil or demons (see Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum siue Originum libri XX, 8.9.3). Hugh of St. Victor identifies eleven such arts, which include necromancy, geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, and pyromancy . Necromancy deals with infernal things—that is, with conjuring up spirits of the dead especially. Geomancy involves earth, hydromancy water, aeromancy air, and pyromancy fire; these four arts, then, establish a correspondence to the four principal elements. See Hugh of St. Victor, Didascalicon de studio legendi 6.15, ed. Charles H. Buttimer (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1939), 133. I am unaware, however, of other attempts to divide necromancy into nine parts or sub-disciplines, as Petrus Alfonsi attempts to do. For a good discussion of necromancy, see Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the...