deliverers and false redeemers should arise, saying that men should obey them, and that they would deliver men. For this cause he warned us against false Christs, yea, even though they should work signs and wonders.
But as concerning the times and seasons when these several troubles should arise, he said naught; nor did he describe the manner of the wars, nor the nations, nor the armies that should make war. Now Quartus judgeth that Jesus knew not these matters; and true it is that Jesus himself spake concerning the time of his coming, saying, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." Only, concerning one part of the prophecy, he said, for certain, that this generation should not pass away till all had been fulfilled. But this, saith Quartus, he knew because of the signs of the times: for as to that which he said, "Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," Quartus supposeth that Jesus himself knew not the time thereof, but only this, that it was not possible that Sion could behold him until Sion desired him: for the beholding of Jesus after his death was not to be with the bodily eye, but with the spiritual, through love and desire. Now concerning the foreknowledge of Jesus, what things he knew, and what things he knew not, I have said above that I pronounce no judgment. But true it is that at this time he spake unto us a third parable concerning the fig-tree, and said that we were to discern the coming of these evils from the signs of the times, even as men discern the coming of the summer from the fig-tree, when it putteth forth leaves. For, like as the summer causeth the fig-tree to put forth her leaves, or like as the scent of the carcass guideth the vultures to the prey, even so he taught us that the sins of men, and especially of Israel, would bring after them miseries and judgments, not by chance, but of necessity.
