Jeremiah wishes May the Lord do what the false prophet^[1] said falsely, for this is what Amen signifies, a word that the Lord often employed in the Gospel: Amen, amen, I say to you.^[2] He also has greater desire that prosperity is realized than that the truth is told. Another prophet testifies in this connection, saying, O that I not be a man who has the Spirit and prefers to speak falsely!^[3] Unlike Jeremiah, however, Jonah is saddened that he should tell a falsehood, in response to which the Lord proves that a false prophecy is better than the destruction of so great a multitude of people.^[4] Lest it seem that he was approving the prediction of the false prophet, he then speaks the truth by using an example from others, without utilizing harmful deception: Yet, hear this word that I speak in your hearing and in that of all the people. The prophets who preceded me and you from the beginning also prophesied many things for the earth and for great kingdoms concerning war and disease and famine. The prophet who foretold peace, when it comes to pass, will be known as the prophet whom the Lord sent in truth.

About four hundred years have passed since the preaching of Christ burst on the world, and during that time in which his robe has been torn by countless heresies, almost the whole body of error has been derived from the Chaldaean, Syriac and Greek languages. Basilides, the master of licentiousness and the grossest sensuality, after the lapse of so many years and like a second Euphorbus, was changed by transmigration into Jovinian, so that the Latin tongue might have a heresy of its own. Was there no other province in the whole world to receive the gospel of pleasure and into which the serpent might insinuate itself, except that which was founded by the teaching of Peter, on the rock Christ? Idol temples had fallen before the standard of the cross and the severity of the gospel. Now, on the contrary, lust and gluttony endeavor to overthrow the solid structure of the cross. And so God says by Isaiah, O my people, they which bless you cause you to err, and trouble the paths of your feet.^[1] Also by Jeremiah, Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every one his life,^[2] and do not believe the false prophets who say, Peace, peace, and there is no peace,^[3] who are always repeating, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.^[4] Your prophets have foreseen false and foolish things for you. They have not exposed your iniquity in order to call you to repentance. They devour God’s people like bread. They have not called on God.^[5] Jeremiah announced the captivity and was stoned by the people. Hananiah, the son of Azzur, broke the bars of wood for the present but was preparing bars of iron for the future. False prophets always promise pleasant things and please for a time. Truth is bitter, and those preaching it are filled with bitterness. For with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth the Lord’s Passover is kept, and it is eaten with bitter herbs.

The Septuagint does not translate two years, nor does it call Hananiah a prophet, lest it appear to name someone a prophet who was in fact no prophet, as if not many persons in sacred Scripture were named in accordance with the opinion of the time in which they lived or according to the truth of the matter. But Joseph is called the father of the Lord. And Mary, who knew that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit (responding to the angel, How can this be, since I have never known a man?^[1]), asked her son, Son, why have you treated us this way? Your father and I have been looking for you desperately.^[2] The prudence, humility and patience of Jeremiah must also be considered. When the pseudo-prophet damaged and broke the yoke around Jeremiah’s neck, which he was not able to do with iron, Jeremiah remained silent and concealed his pain. For what he should say was not yet revealed to him by the Lord, so that sacred Scripture would demonstrate tacitly that a prophet never speaks only on his own decision but also by the will of the Lord, most especially regarding future events, which are known to God alone. Jeremiah departed, it says, and went on his way as though he were well, thus fulfilling the prophecy: I have become like a person who hears nothing and has no rebukes in his mouth.^[3]

When Jeremiah admonishes him, saying, Listen, Hananiah, the Lord did not send you, he omits the title prophet, for how could he call him a prophet who refused to be sent by the Lord? But the truth and order of history is preserved, as we said above, not according to what was but according to what was thought to be at the time. He says, in effect, You have deceived the people with a falsehood, to prevent them from agreeing with the judgment of God. Hence, you know that this will be the year you die. But if, when we die, we are liberated from the prison of the body, according to that testimony that has been badly misinterpreted by heretics, Free my soul from this prison,^[1] how is the death of a pseudo-prophet now imposed as a punishment? It also must be observed, however, that Jeremiah suffered injury from the false prophet and remained silent, the word of the Lord not yet having come to him. Afterwards, however, when sent by the Lord, he boldly convicted him of lying and announced his imminent death. And because he died in the seventh month, which was always customarily understood to represent rest, due to the significance of the number,^[2] perhaps they were deceived that he died in the seventh month, so that he would be liberated from the evils of the body according to that passage they proffer from Scripture: Death gives rest to a person.^[3] But we know that the bodies of believers are temples of God, if the Holy Spirit still dwells within them.^[4]