Particulars
of Christianity:
401
First Eight Writers' Consensus
2: Covenants
& O.T. Saints
Relationship to the Church
Early
Church Confirmation Rubric
Early
Church Consensus: Introduction
1:
Nature of the Godhead
2:
Covenants & O.T. Saints Relationship to the Church
3:
Kingdom (Hell), Timing of 2nd Advent and Kingdom
4-5:
Age of the World (6000 Years); Communion Meal
6:
Baptisms
7-8:
Law of Christ; Repentance
9-12:
Excommunication; Divorce; Sabbath; Tithing
13:
Freewill (A) Against Original Sin and Total Depravity
13:
Freewill (B) Against Unconditional Election
13:
Freewill (C-D) Against Ltd. Atmt.; Ir. Grace, OSAS
14-15:
Church Authority; Roles of Men and Women
16-18:
Charismatic Gifts; Civil Gov't., War; Men & Angels
Addendum
1: Eternal Begetting - Irenaeus and Ignatius
Addendum
2: Eternal Begetting - Justin Martyr
Full
Catalog
2)
View of the Covenants & the Relationship
of Old Testament Saints to the Church
There
are not multiple covenants (or programs) of God operating
at the same time. God progressively prepared men
for redemption and accomplished that redemption through
a series of covenants that culminate in the New Covenant which
was inaugurated by Jesus Christ at the last supper, his
death, and resurrection with believing Jews and under which
Jewish and Gentile saints of all ages (including the Old
Testament saints who lived before the Law of Moses and during
the Law of Moses and the saints living since the new covenant)
are all redeemed through the atoning work of Jesus
Christ and all receive the same promises and eternal reward
together, side-by-side in the kingdom of God on earth. This
new covenant brought by Jesus Christ put an end to and replaced
the old covenant given under Moses. (See also the section
on “Sabbaths and Holy Days” below.)
Mathetes
–
THE
EPISTLE OF MATHETES TO DIOGNETUS
CHAP.
IX. As long then as the former time[8] endured, He permitted us to be borne along by unruly
impulses, being drawn away by the desire of pleasure and various
lusts. This was not that He at all delighted in our
sins, but that He simply endured them; nor that He approved
the time of working iniquity which then was, but that He sought
to form a mind conscious of righteousness,[9] so
that being convinced in that time of our unworthiness of attaining
life through our own works, it should now, through the kindness
of God, be vouchsafed to us; and having made it manifest that
in ourselves we were unable to enter into the kingdom of God,
we might through the power of God be made able. But when
our wickedness had reached its height, and it had been clearly
shown that its reward,[10] punishment and death, was impending
over us; and when the time had come which God had before appointed
for manifesting His
own kindness and power, how[11] the one love of God, through
exceeding regard for men, did not regard us with hatred, nor
thrust us away, nor remember our iniquity against us, but showed great long-suffering, and bore with us,[12] He Himself took
on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as
a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless
One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous,
the incorruptible One
for the corruptible, the immortal One for them that are mortal.
For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than
His righteousness? By what other one was it possible that
we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the
only Son of God? O sweet exchange! O unsearchable operation!
O benefits surpassing all expectation! that the wickedness
of many should be hid in a single righteous One, and that
the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors![13]
Having therefore convinced us in the former
time[14] that our nature was unable to attain to life, and
having now revealed the Saviour who is able to save even those
things which it was [formerly] impossible to save, by both
these facts He desired to lead us to trust in His kindness,
to esteem Him our Nourisher, Father, Teacher, Counsellor,
Healer, our Wisdom, Light, Honour, Glory, Power, and Life,
so that we should not be anxious[15] concerning clothing and
food.
Barnabas
–
THE
EPISTLE OF BARNABAS(1)
CHAP.IV.
Ye ought therefore
to understand. And this also I further beg of you, as
being one of you, and loving you both individually and collectively
more than my own soul, to take heed now to yourselves, and
not to be like some, adding largely to your sins, and saying,
"The covenant is both theirs and ours."(15) But
they thus finally lost it, after Moses had already received
it. For the Scripture saith, "And Moses was fasting
in the mount forty days and forty nights, and received the
covenant from the Lord, tables of stone written with the finger
of the hand of the Lord;"(1) but turning away to idols,
they lost it. For the Lord speaks thus to Moses: "Moses
go down quickly; for the people whom thou hast brought out
of the land
of Egypt
have transgressed."(2) And
Moses understood [the meaning of God], and cast the two tables
out of his hands; and their covenant was broken, in order
that the covenant of the beloved Jesus might be sealed upon
our heart, in the hope which flows from believing in Him.(3)
CHAP.
V. For to this end
the Lord endured to deliver up His flesh to corruption, that
we might be sanctified through the remission of sins, which
is effected by His blood of sprinkling. For it is written
concerning Him, partly with reference to Israel,
and partly to us; and [the Scripture] saith thus: "He was wounded for our transgressions, and
braised for our iniquities: with His stripes we are healed.
He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb
which is dumb before its shearer."(9) …The
prophets, having obtained grace from Him, prophesied concerning
Him. And He (since it behoved Him to appear in flesh),
that He might abolish
death, and reveal the resurrection from the dead, endured
[what and as He did], in order that He might fulfill the promise
made unto the fathers, and by preparing a new people for Himself,
might show, while He dwelt on earth, that He, when He
has raised mankind, will also judge them. Moreover,
teaching Israel,
and doing so great miracles and signs, He preached [the truth]
to him, and greatly loved him. But when He chose His own apostles
who where to preach His Gospel, [He did so from among those]
who were sinners above all sin, that He might show He
came "not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."(12)
Then He manifested Himself to be the Son of God.
(NOTE:
The following quote also attests explicitly to the next doctrinal
point immediately below concerning the nature of the kingdom
of God but it is included here because of its inclusion of
the Old Testament saints in that reward. In addition, although
the initial portion of the following quote might be cited
to support of Total Depravity, however, it does not support
that doctrine. Instead of saying man’s suffering state resulted
from Adam’s sin, the quote states that man’s suffering state
resulted from the fact that Adam was formed from the substance
of the earth, i.e. rather than the substance of heaven, which
is immortal and incorruptible. Consequently, Barnabas is merely
attesting to the fact that human kind was formed with a mortal
and corruptible nature from the very beginning. This is meant
in contrast to the resurrected Jesus Christ, whose human nature
has not only become immortal and incorruptible, but will in
turn make all men immortal and incorruptible, just as Adam’s
original nature endowed all men with a mortal and corruptible
nature. In that sense, this quote actually explicitly describes
the immortality of the saints, living in the kingdom, in a
land flowing with milk and honey, and ruling over the earth
with Christ Jesus.)
Barnabas
–
THE
EPISTLE OF BARNABAS(1)
CHAP.
VI. When, therefore, He has fulfilled the commandment, what
saith He? "Who is he that will contend with Me? let him
oppose Me: or who is he that will enter into judgment with
Me? let him draw near to the servant of the Lord."(8)
"Woe unto you, for ye shall all wax old, like a garment,
and the moth shall eat you up."(9) And again the prophet says, "Since(10) as a mighty stone He is
laid for crushing, behold I cast down for the foundations
of Zion a stone, precious, elect, a corner-stone,
honourable." Next,
what says He? "And he who shall trust" in it
shall live for ever." Is our hope, then, upon a stone?
Far from it. But [the language is used] inasmuch as He laid
his flesh [as a foundation] with power; for He says, "And He placed me as
a firm rock."(12) And
the prophet says again, "The stone which the builders
rejected, the same has become the head of the corner."(13)
And again he says,
"This is the great and wonderful day which the Lord hath
made.(14) I write the more simply unto you, that ye may understand.
I am the off-scouring of your love.(15) What,
then, again says the prophet? "The assembly of the
wicked surrounded me; they encompassed me as bees do a honeycomb,"(16)
and "upon my garment they cast lots."(17) Since,
therefore, He was about to be manifested and to suffer in
the flesh, His suffering was foreshown. For the prophet speaks against Israel, "Woe to their soul,
because they have counselted an evil counsel against themselves,(18)
saying, Let us bind the just one, because he is displeasing
to us."(19) And Moses also says to them,(20) "Behold
these things, saith the Lord God: Enter into the good land
which the Lord sware [to give] to Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob, and inherit ye it, a land flowing with milk and honey."(21)
For man is earth in a suffering state, for the formation of
Adam was from the face of the earth. What, then, meaneth this: "into the
good land, a land flowing with milk and honey?" Blessed
be our Lord, who has placed in us wisdom and understanding
of secret things. For the prophet says, "Who shall understand
the parable of the Lord, except him who is wise and prudent,
and who loves his Lord?"(23) Since, therefore, having renewed us by the remission of our sins, He hath
made us after another pattern, [it is His purpose] that we
should possess the soul of children, inasmuch as He has created
us anew by His Spirit.(24) For the Scripture says concerning
us, while He speaks to the Son, "Let Us make man after
Our image, and after Our likeness; and let them have dominion
over the beasts of the earth, and the fowls of heaven, and
the fishes of the sea."(25) And the Lord said, on
beholding the fair creature(26) man, "Increase, and multiply,
and replenish the earth."(27) These things [were spoken]
to the Son. Again,
I will show thee how, in respect to us,(28) He has accomplished
a second fashioning in these last days. The Lord says,
"Behold, I will make(29) the last like the first."(30)
In reference to this,
then, the prophet proclaimed, "Enter ye into the land
flowing with milk and honey, and have dominion over it."(1)
Behold, therefore, we have been refashioned, as again He says
in another prophet, "Behold, saith the Lord, I will take
away from these, that is, from those whom the Spirit of the
Lord foresaw, their stony hearts, and I will put hearts of
flesh within them,"(2) because He(3) was to be manifested
in flesh, and to sojourn among us. For, my brethren, the habitation
of our heart is a holy temple to the Lord.(4) For
again saith the Lord, "And wherewith shall I appear before
the Lord my God, and be glorified?"(5) He
says,(6) "I will confess to thee in the Church in the
midst(7) of my brethren; and I will praise thee in the midst
of the assembly of the saints."(8) We, then, are they
whom He has led into the good land. What, then, mean milk
and honey? This, that as the infant is kept alive first by
honey, and then by milk, so also we, being quickened and kept
alive by the faith of the promise and by the word, shall
live ruling over the earth. But He said above,(9) "Let
them increase, and nile over the fishes."(10) Who
then is able to govern the beasts, or the fishes, or the fowls
of heaven? For we ought to perceive that to govern implies
authority, so that one should command and rule. If, therefore,
this does not exist at present, yet still He has promised
it to us. When? When we ourselves also have been made perfect
[so as] to become heirs of the covenant of the Lord."
CHAP.
IX. He speaks moreover
concerning our ears, how He hath circumcised both them and
our heart...Therefore He hath circumcised our ears, that
we might hear His word and believe, for
the circumcision in which they trusted is abolished.(20)
CHAP.
XIII. But let us see
if this people(21) is the heir, or the former, and if the
covenant belongs to us or to them. Hear ye now what the
Scripture saith concerning the people. Isaac prayed for Rebecca
his wife, because she was barren; and she conceived.(22) Furthermore
also, Rebecca went forth to inquire of the Lord; and the Lord
said to her, "Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples
in thy belly; and the one people shall surpass the other,
and the eider shall serve the younger."(23) You ought
to understand who was Isaac, who Rebecca, and concerning what
persons He declared that this people should be greater than
that. And in another prophecy Jacob speaks more clearly to
his son Joseph, saying, "Behold, the Lord hath not deprived
me of thy presence; bring thy sons to me, that I may bless
them."(24) And he brought Manasseh and Ephraim, desiring
that Manasseh(25) should be blessed, because he was the eider.
With this view Joseph led him to the right hand of his father
Jacob. But Jacob saw in spirit the type of the people to arise
afterwards. And what says [the Scripture]? And Jacob changed
the direction of his bands, and laid his fight hand upon the
head of Ephraim, the second and younger, and blessed him.
And Joseph said to Jacob, "Transfer thy right hand to
the head of Manasseh,(25) for he is my first-born son."(26)
And Jacob said, "I know it, my son, I know it; but the
eider shall serve the younger: yet he also shall be blessed."(27)
Ye see on whom he laid(28) [his hands], that this people should
be first, and heir of the covenant. If then, still further, the same thing was intimated through Abraham,
we reach the perfection of our knowledge. What, then, says
He to Abraham? "Because thou hast believed,(1) it is
imputed to thee for righteousness: behold, I have made thee
the father of those nations who believe in the Lord while
in [a state of] uncircumcision."(2) CHAP. XIV. Yes [it is even so]; but let us inquire if
the Lord has really given that testament which He swore to
the fathers that He would give(3) to the people. He did give
it; but they were not worthy to receive it, on account
of their sins. For the prophet declares, "And Moses was
fasting forty days and forty nights on Mount
Sinai, that he might receive the testament of
the Lord for the people."(4) And he received from the
Lord(5) two tables, written in the spirit by the finger of
the hand of the Lord. And Moses having received them, carried
them down to give to the people. And the Lord said to Moses,
"Moses, Moses, go down quickly; for thy people hath sinned,
whom thou didst bring out of the land
of Egypt."(6)
And Moses understood that they had again(7) made molten images;
and he threw the tables out of his hands, and the tables of
the testament of the Lord were broken. Moses
then received it, but they proved themselves unworthy. Learn
now how we have received it. Moses, as a servant,(8) received
it; but the Lord himself, having suffered in our behalf, hath
given it to us, that we should be the people of inheritance.
But He was manifested, in order that they might be perfected
in their iniquities, and that we, being constituted heirs
through Him,(9) might receive the testament of the Lord Jesus,
who was prepared for this end, that by His personal manifestation,
redeeming our hearts (which were already wasted by death,
and given over to the iniquity of error) from darkness, He
might by His word enter into a covenant with us. For it is
written how the Father, about to redeem(10) us from darkness,
commanded Him to prepare(11) a holy people for Himself. The
prophet therefore declares, "I, the Lord Thy God, have
called Thee in righteousness, and will hold Thy hand, and
will strengthen Thee; and I have given Thee for a covenant to the
people, for a light to the nations, to open the eyes of
the blind, and to bring forth from fetters them that are bound,
and those that sit in darkness out of the prison-house."(12)
Ye perceive,(13) then, whence we have been redeemed. And
again, the prophet says, "Behold, I have appointed Thee
as a light to the nations, that Thou mightest be for salvation
even to the ends of the earth, saith the Lord God that redeemeth
thee."(14) And again, the prophet saith, "The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He hath anointed me
to preach the Gospel to the humble: He hath sent me to heal
the broken-hearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives,
and recovery of sight to the blind; to announce the acceptable
year of the Lord, and the day of recompense; to comfort all
that mourn."(15)
Clement
–
THE
FIRST EPISTLE OF CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS
CHAP.
XXX. Seeing, therefore, that we are the portion of the Holy
One, let us do all those things which pertain to holiness,
avoiding all evil-speaking, all abominable and impure embraces,
together with all drunkenness, seeking after change,(3) all
abominable lusts, detestable adultery, and execrable pride.
"For God," saith [the Scripture], "resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace to the humble."(4) Let us
cleave, then, to those to whom grace has been given by God.
Let us clothe ourselves with concord and humility, ever exercising
self-control, standing far off from all whispering and evil-speaking,
being justified by our works, and not our words…CHAP.
XXXI. Let us cleave then to His blessing, and consider
what are the means(6) of possessing it. Let us think(7) over
the things which have taken place from the beginning.
For what reason was our father Abraham blessed? was it not because he
wrought righteousness and truth through
faith?(8) Isaac,
with perfect confidence, as if knowing what was to happen,(9)
cheerfully yielded himself as a sacrifice.(10) Jacob, through reason(11) of his brother,
went forth with humility from his own land, and came to Laban and served him; and there was given to him the sceptre of
the twelve tribes of Israel. CHAP. XXXII. Whosoever will candidly consider each particular, will recognise the
greatness of the gifts which were given by him.(12) For from
him(13) have sprung the priests and all the Levites who minister
at the altar of God. From him also [was descended] our Lord
Jesus Christ according to the flesh.(14) From him [arose]
kings, princes, and rulers of the race of Judah. Nor are his other tribes in
small glory, inasmuch as God had promised, "Thy seed
shall be as the stars of heaven."(15)
All these, therefore, were highly honoured,
and made great, not for their own sake, or for their own works,
or for the righteousness which they wrought, but through
the operation of His will. And we, too, being called by His will in Christ
Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own
wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we
have wrought in holiness of heart; but
by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty
God has justified all men; to whom be glory for ever and ever.
Amen.
CHAP.
L. All the generations
from Adam even unto this day have passed away; but those who,
through the grace of God, have been made perfect in love,
now possess a place among the godly, and shall be made manifest
at the revelation(14) of the kingdom of Christ. For it
is written, "Enter into thy secret chambers for a little
time, until my wrath and fury pass away; and I will remember
a propitious(15) day, and will raise you up out of your graves."(16)
Blessed are we, beloved, if we keep the commandments of God
in the harmony of love; that so through love our sins may
be forgiven us. For it is written, "Blessed are they
whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not impute to him,
and in whose mouth there is no guile."(1) This
blessedness cometh upon those who have been chosen by God
through Jesus Christ our Lord; to whom be glory for ever and
ever. Amen.
Ignatius
–
THE
EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS TO THE MAGNESIANS
CHAP,
VIII. Be not deceived
with strange doctrines, nor with old fables, which are unprofitable.
For if we still live according to the Jewish
law, we acknowledge that we have not received grace. For the
divinest prophets lived according to Christ Jesus. On
this account also they were persecuted, being inspired by
His grace to fully convince the unbelieving that there is
one God, who has manifested Himself by Jesus Christ His Son,
who is His eternal Word, not proceeding forth from silence,[5]
and who in all things pleased Him that sent Him.
CHAP.
IX. If, therefore, those who were brought up in
the ancient order of things[7] have come to the possession
of a new[8] hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living
in the observance[10] of the Lord's Day, on which also
our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death--whom
some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith,[12] and
therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus
Christ, our only Master--how shall we be able to live apart
from Him, whose disciples the prophets themselves in the Spirit did wait for Him
as their Teacher? And therefore He whom they rightly waited
for, being come, raised them from the dead.[16]
CHAP.
X. Let us not, therefore,
be insensible to His kindness. For
were He to reward us according to our works, we should cease
to be. Therefore, having become His disciples, let us
learn to live according to the principles of Christianity.[7]
For whosoever is called by any other name besides this, is
not of God. Lay aside,
therefore, the evil, the old, the sour leaven, and be ye changed
into the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ. Be ye salted
in Him, lest any one among you should be corrupted, since
by your savour ye shall be convicted. It is absurd to profess[12] Christ Jesus, and to Judaize. For Christianity
did not embrace[13] Judaism, but Judaism Christianity, that
so every tongue which believeth might be gathered together
to God.
Ignatius
–
THE
EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS TO THE PHILADELPHIANS
CHAP.
V. My brethren, I am greatly enlarged in loving you; and rejoicing
exceedingly [over you], I seek to secure your safety. Yet
it is not I, but Jesus Christ, for whose sake being bound
I fear the more, inasmuch as I am not yet perfect. But your
prayer to God shall make me perfect, that I may attain to
that portion which through mercy has been allotted me, while
I flee to the Gospel as to the flesh of Jesus, and to the
apostles as to the presbytery of the Church. And let us
also love the prophets, because they too have proclaimed the
Gospel,(4) and placed their hope in Him,(5) and waited for
Him; in whom also believing, they were saved, through union
to Jesus Christ, being
holy men, worthy of love and admiration, having had witness
borne to them by Jesus Christ, and being reckoned along with
in the Gospel of the common hope.
CHAP.
IX. The priests(11) indeed are good, but the High Priest is
better; to whom the holy of holies has been committed, and
who alone has been trusted with the secrets of God. He
is the door of the Father, by which enter in Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets, and the apostles, and
the Church. All these have for their object the attaining
to the unity of God. But the Gospel possesses something
transcendent [above the former dispensation], viz., the appearance
of our Lord Jesus Christ, His passion and resurrection. For
the beloved prophets announced Him,(17) but the Gospel is
the perfection of immortality.(18) All these things are good
together, if ye believe in love.
NOTE: Concerning the quote
above, alternate editions render the closing phrase
with “us” implied: “being reckoned along with [us] in the
Gospel of the common hope.”
http://mb-soft.com/believe/txv/ignatiu5.htm
http://www.ecmarsh.com/crl/fathers/philadelphians.htm
CHAP.
VI. But if any one
preach the Jewish law(9) unto you, listen not to him. For
it is better to hearken to Christian doctrine from a man who
has been circumcised, than to Judaism from one uncircumcised.
But if either of such persons do not speak concerning
Jesus Christ, they are in my judgment but as monuments and
sepulchres of the dead, upon which are written only the names
of men. Flee therefore the wicked devices and snares of the
prince of this world, lest at any time being conquered(1)
by his artifices,(2) ye grow weak in your love. But be ye
all joined together(3) with an undivided heart. And I thank
my God that I have a good conscience in respect to you, and
that no one has it in his power to boast, either privately
or publicly, that I have burdened(6) any one either in much
or in little. And I wish for all among whom I have spoken,
that they may not possess that for a testimony against them.
Ignatius
–
THE
EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS TO THE SMYRNAEANS
CHAP.
V. Some ignorantly(3) deny Him, or rather have been denied
by Him, being the advocates of death rather than of the truth.
These persons neither have the prophets persuaded,
nor the law of Moses, nor the Gospel even to this day, nor
the sufferings we have individually endured. For they
think also the same thing regarding us.(4) For what does any
one profit me, if he commends me, but blasphemes my Lord,
not confessing that He was[truly] possessed of a body?(5)
But he who does not acknowledge this, has in fact altogether
denied Him, being enveloped in death.(6) I have not, however,
thought good to write the names of such persons, inasmuch
as they are unbelievers. Yea, far be it from me to make any
mention of them, until they repent and return to [a true belief
in] Christ's passion, which is our resurrection.
Justin
Martyr –
THE
FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN
CHAP.
XXX. But lest any one should meet us with the question, What
should prevent that He whom we call Christ, being a man born
of men, performed what we call His mighty works by magical
art, and by this appeared to be the Son of God? we will now
offer proof, not trusting mere assertions, but being of necessity persuaded by those who prophesied [of Him] before these
things came to pass, for with our own eyes we behold things that have happened and are happening
just as they were predicted; and this will, we think appear
even to you the strongest and truest evidence. CHAP. XXXI.
There were, then, among
the Jews certain men who were prophets of God, through whom
the prophetic Spirit published beforehand things that were
to come to pass, ere ever they happened. And their prophecies,
as they were spoken and when they were uttered, the kings
who happened to be reigning among the Jews at the several
times carefully preserved in their possession, when they had
been arranged in books by the prophets themselves in their
own Hebrew language...In these books, then, of the prophets we found
Jesus our Christ foretold as coming, born of a virgin, growing
up to man's estate, and healing every disease and every sickness,
and raising the dead, and being hated, and unrecognised, and
crucified, and dying, and rising again, and ascending into
heaven, and being, and being called, the Son of God. We
find it also predicted that certain persons should be sent
by Him into every nation to publish these things, and that
rather among the Gentiles [than among the Jews] men should
believe on Him. And He was predicted before He appeared,
first 5000 years before, and again 3000, then 2000, then 1000,
and yet again 800; for in the succession of generations prophets
after prophets arose. CHAP. XXXII. Moses then, who was the first of the prophets, spoke in these very
words: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor
a lawgiver from between his feet, until He come for whom it
is reserved; and He shall be the desire of the nations, binding His foal to the
vine, washing His robe in the blood of the grape."(2)
It is yours to make accurate inquiry, and ascertain up to
whose time the Jews had a lawgiver and king of their own.
Up to the time of Jesus Christ, who taught us, and interpreted
the prophecies which were not yet understood, [they had a
lawgiver] as was foretold by the holy and divine Spirit of
prophecy through Moses, "that a ruler would not fail
the Jews until He should come for whom the kingdom was reserved"
(for Judah was the forefather of the Jews, from whom also
they have their name of Jews); and after He (i.e., Christ)
appeared, you began to rule the Jews, and gained possession
of all their territory. And the prophecy, "He shall be the expectation
of the nations," signified that there would be some of
all nations who should look for Him to come again. And this indeed you can see for yourselves, and be convinced of by fact.
For of all races of men there are some who look for Him who
was crucified in Judaea,
and after whose crucifixion the land was straightway surrendered
to you as spoil of war. …And Isaiah, another prophet, foretelling the same things in other words,
spoke thus: "A star shall rise out of Jacob, and
a flower shall spring from the root of Jesse; and
His arm shall the nations trust."(1) And a star of
light has arisen, and a flower has sprung from the root of
Jesse--this Christ. For by the power of God He was conceived
by a virgin of the seed of Jacob, who was the father of Judah,
who, as we have shown, was the father of the Jews; and Jesse
was His forefather according to the oracle, and He was the
son of Jacob and Judah according to lineal descent. CHAP.
XXXIII. And hear again
how Isaiah in express words foretold that He should be born
of a virgin; for he spoke thus: "Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bring forth a son, and they shall say for His
name, 'God with us.' "(2) For things which were incredible
and seemed impossible with men, these God predicted by the
Spirit of prophecy as about to come to pass, in order that,
when they came to pass, there might be no unbelief, but faith,
because of their prediction. … CHAP. XXXIX. And
when the Spirit of prophecy speaks as predicting things that
are to come to pass, He speaks in this way: "For out
of Zion shall go forth the
law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke
many people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift
up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any
more."(12) And
that it did so come to pass, we can convince you. For from
Jerusalem there went out into the world, men, twelve in number,
and these illiterate, of no ability in speaking: but by
the power of God they proclaimed to every race of men that they were sent by Christ to
teach to all the word of God; and we who formerly used to
murder one another do not only now refrain from making war
upon our enemies, but also, that we may not lie nor deceive
our examiners, willingly die confessing Christ… CHAP.
XL. …And we have
thought it right and relevant to mention some other prophetic
utterances of David besides these; from
which you may learn how the Spirit of prophecy exhorts men
to live, and how He foretold the conspiracy which was
formed against Christ by Herod the king of the Jews, and the
Jews themselves, and Pilate, who was your governor among them,
with his soldiers; and how He should be believed on by men of
every race; and how God calls Him His Son, and has declared
that He will subdue all His enemies under Him; and how the
devils, as much as they can, strive to escape the power of
God the Father and Lord of all, and the power of Christ Himself;
and how God calls all to repentance before the day of judgment
comes. …The Lord said
to Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.
Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth as Thy possession. Thou
shall herd them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter
shalt Thou dash them in pieces. "
CHAP.
XLIX. And again, how
it was said by the same Isaiah, that the Gentile nations who
were not looking for Him should worship Him, but the Jews who always expected Him should not recognize Him when He
came. And the words
are spoken as from the person of Christ; and they are these
"I was manifest to them that asked not for Me; I was
found of them that sought Me not: I said, Behold Me, to a
nation that called not on My name. I spread out My hands to
a disobedient and gainsaying people, to those who walked in
a way that is not good, but follow after their own sins; a
people that provoketh Me to anger to My face."(3)
For the Jews having
the prophecies, and being always in expectation of the Christ
to come, did not recognise Him; and not only so, but even
treated Him shamefully. But the Gentiles, who had never heard
anything about Christ, until the apostles set out from Jerusalem
and preached concerning Him, and gave them the prophecies,
were filled with joy and faith, and cast away their idols,
and dedicated themselves to the Unbegotten God through Christ.
CHAP. L. But that,
having become man for our sakes, He endured to suffer and
to be dishonoured, and that He shall come again with glory,
hear the prophecies which relate to this; they are these:
"Because they delivered His soul unto death, and He was
numbered with the transgressors, He has borne the sin of many,
and shall make intercession for the transgressors. For, behold,
My Servant shall deal prudently, and shall be exalted, and
shall be greatly extolled. As many were astonished at Thee,
so marred shall Thy
form be before men, and so hidden from them Thy glory; so
shall many nations wonder, and the kings shall shut their
mouths at Him. For they to whom it was not told concerning
Him, and they who have not heard, shall understand. O Lord,
who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? We have declared before Him as a child, as
a root in a dry ground. He had no form, nor glory; and we
saw Him, and there was no form nor comeliness: but His form
was dishonoured and marred more than the sons of men. A man
under the stroke, and knowing how to bear infirmity, because
His face was turned away: He was despised, and of no reputation.
It is He who bears our sins, and is afflicted for us; yet
we did esteem Him smitten, stricken, and afflicted. But He
was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities, the chastisement of peace was upon Him, by His
stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray;
every man has wandered in his own way. And He delivered Him
for our sins; and He opened not His mouth for all His affliction.
He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb
before his shearer is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth. In
His humiliation, His judgment was taken away."(5) Accordingly,
after He was crucified, even all His acquaintances forsook
Him, having denied Him; and afterwards, when He had risen
from the dead and appeared to them, and had taught them to
read the prophecies in which all these things were foretold
as coming to pass, and when they had seen Him ascending into
heaven, and had believed, and had received power sent thence
by Him upon them, and went to every race of men, they taught
these things, and were called apostles.
Dialogue
of Justin –
PHILOSOPHER
AND MARTYR, WITH TRYPHO, A JEW
CHAP.
VII. "'There existed,
long before this time, certain men more ancient than all those
who are esteemed philosophers, both righteous and beloved
by God, who spoke by the Divine Spirit, and foretold
events which would take place, and which are now taking
place. They are called prophets. These alone both saw and announced the truth
to men, neither reverencing nor fearing any man, not influenced
by a desire for glory, but speaking those things alone which
they saw and which they heard, being filled with the Holy
Spirit. Their writings
are still extant, and he who has read them is very much
helped in his knowledge of the beginning and end of things,
and of those matters which the philosopher ought to know,
provided he has believed them. For they did not use demonstration
in their treatises, seeing that they were witnesses to the
truth above all demonstration, and worthy of belief; and those
events which have happened, and those which are happening,
compel you to assent to the utterances made by them, although, indeed,
they were entitled to credit on account of the miracles which
they performed, since they both glorified the Creator, the
God and Father of all things, and proclaimed His Son, the
Christ [sent] by Him…
CHAP.
X. And when they ceased, I again addressed them thus: "Is there any other matter, my friends, in which we are blamed, than this, that we live not after the law,
and are not circumcised in the flesh as your forefathers were,
and do not observe sabbaths as you do?
…"This is what we are amazed at," said Trypho,
that you, professing to be pious, and supposing yourselves better than
others, are not in any particular separated from them,
and do not alter your mode of living from the nations, in that you
observe no festivals or sabbaths, and
do not have the rite of circumcision; and further, resting
your hopes on a man that was crucified, you yet expect to
obtain some good thing from God, while you do not obey His commandments. Have
you not read, that soul shall be cut off from his people who
shall not have been circumcised on the eighth day? And this
has been ordained for strangers and for slaves equally. But
you, despising this covenant rashly, reject the consequent
duties, and attempt to persuade yourselves that you know God, when, however, you perform none of those things
which they do who fear God. If, therefore, you can defend
yourself on these points, and make it manifest in what way
you hope for anything whatsoever, even though you do not observe the law,
this we would very gladly hear from you, and we shall make
other similar investigations."
CHAP.
XI. But we do not trust
through Moses or through the law; for then we would do
the same as yourselves. But
now(2)--(for I have read that there shall be a final law,
and a covenant, the chiefest of all, which it is now incumbent
on all men to observe, as many as are seeking after the inheritance
of God. For the law promulgated on Horeb is now old, and belongs
to yourselves alone; but this is for all universally. Now,
law placed against
law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant
which comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous
one; and an eternal and final law--namely, Christ--has been
given to us, and the covenant is trustworthy, after which
there shall be no law, no commandment, no ordinance. Have
you not read this which Isaiah says: 'Hearken unto Me,
hearken unto Me, my people; and, ye kings, give ear unto Me:
for a law shall go
forth from Me, and My judgment shah be for a light to the
nations. My righteousness approaches swiftly, and My salvation
shall go forth, and nations shall trust in Mine arm?'(1) And by Jeremiah, concerning this same new covenant, He thus speaks: 'Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not
according to the covenant which I made with their fathers,
in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out
of the land of Egypt'(2)). If, therefore, God proclaimed a
new covenant which was to be instituted, and this for a light
of the nations, we see and are persuaded that men approach
God, leaving their idols and other unrighteousness, through
the name of Him who was crucified, Jesus Christ, and abide
by their confession even unto death, and maintain piety. Moreover,
by the works and by the attendant miracles, it is possible
for all to understand that He is the new law, and the new covenant,
and the expectation of those who out of every people wait
for the good things of God. For
the true spiritual Israel, and descendants of Judah, Jacob,
Isaac, and Abraham (who in uncircumcision was approved of
and blessed by God on account of his faith, and called the
father of many nations), are we who have been led to God
through this crucified Christ, as shall be demonstrated while
we proceed. CHAP. XII. I also adduced another passage in which Isaiah exclaims: "'Hear My words, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold,
I have given Him for a witness to the people: nations which
know not Thee shall call on Thee; peoples who know not Thee
shall escape to Thee, because of thy God, the Holy One of
Israel; for He has glorified Thee.'(3) This same law you have despised, and His new holy covenant you have slighted;
and now you neither receive it, nor repent of your evil deeds.
'For your ears are closed, your eyes are blinded, and the
heart is hardened,' Jeremiah(4) has cried; yet not even then
do you listen. The Lawgiver is present, yet you do not see
Him; to the poor the Gospel is preached, the blind see, yet
you do not understand. You have now need of a second circumcision,
though you glory greatly in the flesh. The new law requires
you to keep perpetual sabbath, and you, because you are idle
for one day, suppose you are pious, not discerning why this
has been commanded you: and if you eat unleavened bread, you
say the will of God has been fulfilled. The Lord our God does
not take pleasure in such observances: if there is any perjured
person or a thief among you, let him cease to be so; if any
adulterer, let him repent; then he has kept the sweet and
true sabbaths of God. If any one has impure hands, let him
wash and be pure.
CHAP.
XVII. For after that you had crucified Him, the only blameless
and righteous Man,-- through whose swipes those who approach
the Father by Him are healed,--when
you knew that He had risen from the dead and ascended to heaven,
as the prophets foretold He would…
CHAP.
XX. For it was told
you by Moses in the book of Genesis, that God granted to Noah,
being a just man, to eat of every animal, but not of flesh
with the blood, which is dead."(6) And as he was
ready to say, "as the green herbs," I anticipated
him: "Why do you
not receive this statement, 'as the green herbs,' in the sense
in which it was given by God, to wit, that just as God has
granted the herbs for sustenance to man, even so has He given
the animals for the diet of flesh? But, you say, a distinction
was laid down thereafter to Noah, because we do not eat certain
herbs. As you interpret it, the thing is incredible. And first I shall not occupy myself with this, though able to say and
to hold that every vegetable is food, and fit to be eaten.
But although we discriminate between green herbs, not eating
all, we refrain from eating some, not because they are common
or unclean, but because they are bitter, or deadly, or thorny.
But we lay hands on and take of all herbs which are sweet,
very nourishing and good, whether they are marine or land
plants. Thus also God by the mouth of Moses commanded you
to abstain from unclean and improper(7) and violent animals…
CHAP.
XXIV. Come, all nations;
let us gather ourselves together at Jerusalem, no longer plagued by war for the
sins of her people. 'For
I was manifest to them that sought Me not; I was found of
them that asked not for Me;'(5) He exclaims by Isaiah: 'I
said, Behold
Me, unto nations which were not called by My name. I
have spread out My hands all the day unto a disobedient and
gainsaying people, which walked in a way that was not good,
but after their own sins. It is a people that rovoketh Me
to my face.'(5)
CHAP.
XXVI. And Trypho remarked,
"What is this you say? that none of us shall inherit
anything on the holy mountain of God?" CHAP. XXVI. And I replied, "I do not say so; but
those who have persecuted and do persecute Christ, if they
do not repent, shall not inherit anything on the holy mountain.
But the Gentiles, who have believed on Him, and have repented
of the sins which they have committed, they shall receive
the inheritance along with the patriarchs and the prophets,
and the just men who are descended from Jacob, even although
they neither keep the Sabbath, nor are circumcised, nor observe
the feasts. Assuredly they shall receive the holy inheritance of God. For God
speaks by Isaiah thus: 'I, the Lord God, have called Thee
in righteousness, and will hold Thine hand, and will strengthen
Thee; and I have given Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the
Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out
them that are bound from the chains, and those who sit in
darkness from the prison-house.'(4) And again: 'Lift
up a standard s for the people; for, lo, the Lord has made
it heard unto the end of the earth. Say ye to the daughters
of Zion, Behold, thy Saviour has come; having His reward,
and His work before His face: and He shall call it a holy
nation, redeemed by the Lord. And thou shalt be called a city
sought out, and not forsaken.
CHAP.
XXXII. But now, by
means of the contents of those Scriptures esteemed holy and
prophetic amongst you, I attempt to prove all [that I
have adduced], in the hope that some one of you may be found
to be of that remnant which has been left by the grace of
the Lord of Sabaoth for the eternal salvation. In order,
therefore, that the matter inquired into may be plainer to
you, I will mention to you other words also spoken by the
blessed David, from which you will perceive that the Lord
is called the Christ by the Holy Spirit of prophecy; and that
the Lord, the Father of all, has brought Him again from the
earth, setting Him at His own right hand, until He makes His
enemies His footstool.
CHAP.
XXXIII. For by this statement, 'The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent: Thou
art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek,' with
an oath God has shown Him (on account of your unbelief) to
be the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek; i.e., as
Melchizedek was described by Moses as the priest of the Most
High, and he was a priest
of those who were in uncircumcision, and blessed the circumcised
Abraham who brought him tithes, so God has shown that His everlasting Priest, called also by the Holy
Spirit Lord, would
be Priest of those in uncircumcision. Those too in circumcision
who approach Him, that is, believing Him and seeking blessings
from Him, He will both receive and bless.
CHAP.
XXXVIII. And Trypho said, "Sir,
it were good for us if we obeyed our teachers, who laid down
a law that we should have no intercourse with any of you,
and that we should not have even any communication with you
on these questions. For you utter many blasphemies, in that
you seek to persuade us that this crucified man was with Moses
and Aaron, and spoke to them in the pillar of the cloud; then
that he became man, was crucified, and ascended up to heaven,
and comes again to earth, and ought to be worshipped."
Then I answered, "I
know that, as the word of God says, this great wisdom of God, the Maker of all things, and the Almighty,
is hid from you.
Wherefore, in sympathy with you, I am striving
to the utmost that you may understand these matters which
to you are paradoxical;
but if not, that I myself may be innocent in the day of judgment.
CHAP.
XXXIX. "Now it is not surprising," I continued,
"that you hate us who hold these opinions, and convict
you of a continual hardness of heart.(4) For indeed Elijah,
conversing with God concerning you, speaks thus: 'Lord, they
have slain Thy prophets, and digged down Thine altars: and
I am left alone, and they seek my life.' And He answers him:
'I have still seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee
to Baal.'(5) Therefore,
just as God did not inflict His anger on account of those
seven thousand men, even so He has now neither yet inflicted
judgment, nor does inflict it, knowing that daily some [of you] are becoming
disciples in the name of Christ, and quitting the path of
error; who are also receiving gifts, each as he is
worthy, illumined through the name of this Christ.
CHAP.
XLIII. "As, then,
circumcision began with Abraham, and the Sabbath and sacrifices
and offerings and feasts with Moses, and it has been proved
they were enjoined on account of the hardness of your people's
heart, so it was necessary, in accordance with the Father's will, that they should
have an end in Him who was born of a virgin, of the family
of Abraham and tribe of Judah,
and of David; in
Christ the Son of God, who was proclaimed as about to come
to all the world, to be the everlasting law and the everlasting
covenant, even as the forementioned prophecies show.
CHAP.
XLV. Then he said,
"Tell me, then, shall those who lived according to the
law given by Moses, live in the same manner with Jacob, Enoch,
and Noah, in the resurrection of the dead, or not?"
I replied to him, "When I quoted, sir, the words spoken by Ezekiel,
that 'even if Noah and Daniel and Jacob were to beg sons and
daughters, the request would not be granted them,' but that
each one, that is to say, shall be saved by his own righteousness,
I said also, that those
who regulated their lives by the law of Moses would in like
manner be saved. For
what in the law of Moses is naturally good, and pious, and
righteous, and has been prescribed to be done by those who
obey it;(7) and what was appointed to be performed by
reason of the hardness of the people's hearts; was similarly
recorded, and done also by those who were under the law. Since
those who did that which is universally, naturally, and eternally
good are pleasing to God, they shall be saved through this
Christ in the resurrection equally with those righteous men
who were before them, namely Noah, and Enoch, and Jacob, and
whoever else there be, along with those who have known(8)
this Christ, Son of God, who was before the morning star
and the moon, and submitted to become incarnate, and be born
of this virgin of the family of David, in order that, by this
dispensation, the serpent that sinned from the beginning,
and the angels like him, may be destroyed, and that death
may be contemned, and for ever quit, at the second coming
of the Christ Himself, those who believe in Him and live acceptably,--and
be no more: when some are sent to be punished unceasingly
into judgment and condemnation of fire; but others shall exist in freedom from suffering,
from corruption, and from grief, and in immortality."
CHAP.
XLVI. Then I returned answer, "You perceive that God by Moses laid all such
ordinances upon you on account of the hardness of your people's
hearts, in order that, by the large number of them, you might
keep God continually, and in every action, before your eyes, and
never begin to act unjustly or impiously. …CHAP. XLVII.
And Trypho again inquired, "But if some
one, knowing that this is so, after he recognises that this
man is Christ, and has believed in and obeys Him, wishes,
however, to observe these [institutions], will he be saved?"
I said, "In my
opinion, Trypho, such an one will be saved, if he does not
strive in every way to persuade other men,--I mean those Gentiles
who have been circumcised from error by Christ, to observe
the same things as himself, telling them that they will not
be saved unless they do so. …But if some, through weak-mindedness,
wish to observe such
institutions as were given by Moses, from which they expect
some virtue, but which we believe were appointed by reason
of the hardness of the people's hearts, along
with their hope in this Christ, and [wish to perform] the
eternal and natural acts of righteousness and piety, yet choose
to live with the Christians and the faithful, as I said before,
not inducing them either to be circumcised like themselves,
or to keep the Sabbath, or to observe any other such ceremonies,
then I hold that we ought to join ourselves to such, and associate
with them in all things as kinsmen and brethren. But if, Trypho,"
I continued, "some of your race, who say they believe
in this Christ, compel those Gentiles who believe in this
Christ to live in all respects according to the law given
by Moses, or choose not to associate so intimately with them,
I in like manner do not approve of them. But I
believe that even those, who have been persuaded by them to
observe the legal dispensation along with their confession
of God in Christ, shall probably be saved. And I hold,
further, that such as have confessed and known this man to
be Christ, yet who have gone back from some cause to the legal
dispensation, and have denied that this man is Christ, and
have repented not before death, shall by no means be saved.
Further, I hold that those of the seed of
Abraham who live according to the law, and do not believe
in this Christ before death, shall
likewise not be saved, and especially those who have anathematized
and do anathematize this very Christ in the synagogues, and
everything by which they might obtain salvation and escape
the vengeance of fire.
CHAP.
LXIV. Here
Trypho said, "Let Him be recognised as Lord and Christ
and God, as the Scriptures declare, by you of the Gentiles,
who have from His name
been all called Christians; but we who are servants of
God that made this same[Christ], do
not require to confess or worship Him." Accordingly,
if you had bestowed attention on the Scriptures previously
quoted by me, you would already have understood, that those
who are saved of your own nation are saved through this(11)
[man], and partake of His lot; and you would not certainly
have asked me about this matter. I shall again repeat the
words of David previously quoted by me, and beg of you to
comprehend them, and not to act wrongfully, and stir each
other up to give merely some contradiction. The words which
David speaks, then, are these: 'The Lord has reigned; let
the nations be angry:[it is] He who sits upon the cherubim;
let the earth be shaken. The Lord is great in Zion;
and He is high above all the nations. Let them confess Thy
great name, for it is fearful and holy; and the honour of
the king loves judgment. Thou hast prepared equity; judgment
and righteousness hast Thou performed in Jacob. Exalt the
Lord our God, and worship the footstool of His feet; for He
is holy. Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel
among them that call upon His name; they called on the Lord,
and He heard them. In the pillar of the cloud He spake to
them; for they kept His testimonies and His commandments which
He gave them.'(12) And from the other words of David, also previously quoted, which you
foolishly affirm refer to Solomon,[because] inscribed for
Solomon, it can be proved that they do not refer
to Solomon, and that this[Christ]
existed before the sun, and that those of your nation who
are saved shall be saved through Him.
CHAP.
LXVII. And Trypho said, "You
admitted(5) to us that He was both circumcised, and observed
the other legal ceremonies ordained by Moses." And
I replied, "I have admitted it, and do admit it: yet
I have admitted that He endured all these not as if He were
justified by them, but completing the dispensation which His
Father, the Maker of all things, and Lord and God, wished
Him[to complete]. For I admit that He endured crucifixion
and death, and the incarnation, and the suffering of as many
afflictions as your nation put upon Him. But since again you
dissent from that to which you but lately assented, Trypho,
answer me: Are those
righteous patriarchs who lived before Moses, who observed
none of those[ordinances] which, the Scripture shows, received
the commencement of[their] institution from Moses, saved,[and
have they attained to] the inheritance of the blessed?"
And Trypho said, "The
Scriptures compel me to admit it." "Likewise
I again ask you," said I, "did
God enjoin your fathers to present the offerings and sacrifices
because He had need of them, or because of the hardness of
their hearts and tendency to idolatry?" "The latter,"
said he, "the Scriptures in like manner compel us to
admit." "Likewise," said I, "did not the
Scriptures predict that God promised to dispense a new covenant
besides that which [was dispensed] in the mountain Horeb?"
This, too, he replied, had been predicted.
Then I said again, "Was
not the old covenant laid on your fathers with fear and
trembling, so that they could not give ear to God?" He
admitted it. "What then?" said I: "God
promised that there would be another covenant, not like that
old one, and said that it would be laid on them without
fear, and trembling, and lightnings, and that it would be such as to show what kind of commands and deeds God
knows to be eternal and suited to every nation, and what commandments
He has given, suiting them to the hardness of your people's
hearts, as He exclaims also by the prophets." "To
this also," said he, "those who are lovers of truth
and not lovers of strife must assuredly assent."
CHAP.
LXXII. And again, from the sayings of the same Jeremiah these
have been cut out: 'The
Lord God remembered His dead people of Israel who lay in the graves; and
He descended to preach to them His own salvation.'(1)
NOTE:
The following quote is included because in it, Justin explains
that the death of the Messiah specifically was not “unknown”
in the Old Testament. In various prophecies, Justin shows
that the early Christians understood that the death of the
Messiah was known to the prophets.
CHAP.
XCVI. "For the
statement in the law, 'Cursed is every one that hangeth on
a tree,'(3) confirms our hope which depends on the crucified
Christ, not because He who has been crucified is cursed
by God, but because
God foretold that which would be done by you all, and
by those like to your, who do not know(4) that this is He
who existed before all, who is the eternal Priest of God,
and King, and Christ. …CHAP. XCVII. "For it was not without design that the prophet Moses, when Hur and Aaron
upheld his hands, remained in this form until evening. For
indeed the Lord remained upon the tree almost until evening,
and they buried Him at eventide; then on the third day
He rose again. This was declared by David thus: 'With my voice
I cried to the Lord, and He heard me out of His holy hill.
I laid me down, and slept; I awaked, for the Lord sustained
me.'(7) And Isaiah likewise mentions concerning Him the
manner in which He would die, thus: 'I have spread out My
hands unto a people disobedient, and gainsaying, that
walk in a way which is not good.'(8)
CHAP.
CXIX. And after that Righteous One was put to death, we flourished
as another people, and shot forth as new and prosperous corn;
as the prophets said, 'And many nations shall betake themselves
to the Lord in that day for a people: and they shall dwell
in the midst of all the earth.'(12) 'And
they shall call them the holy people, redeemed by the Lord.'(2)
Therefore we are not a people to be despised, nor a barbarous
race, nor such as the Carian and Phrygian nations; but
God has even chosen us and He has become manifest to those
who asked not after Him. 'Behold,
I am God,' He says, 'to the nation which called not on My
name.'(3) For this is that nation which God of old promised
to Abraham, when He declared that He would make him a father
of many nations…Noah, moreover, was the father of Abraham,
and in fact of all men; and others were the progenitors of
others. What larger measure of grace, then, did Christ bestow on Abraham? This,
namely, that He called him with His voice by the like calling,
telling him to quit the land wherein he dwelt. And He has
called all of us by that voice, and we have left already the
way of living in which we used to spend our days, passing
our time in evil after
the fashions of the other inhabitants of the earth; and along
with Abraham we shall inherit the holy land, when we shall
receive the inheritance for an endless eternity, being children
of Abraham through the like faith… CHAP. CXX …And this was a mysterious type of Christ
being about to cut your nation in two, and to raise those
worthy of the honour to the everlasting kingdom along with
the holy patriarchs and prophets; but He has said that
He will send others to the condemnation of the unquenchable
fire along with similar disobedient and impenitent men from
all the nations. 'For they shall come,' He said, 'from the
west and from the east, and shall sit down with Abraham, and
Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children
of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.'(8)
… CHAP. CXXI. …Wherefore
He said to Him: 'It is a great thing for Thee to be called
my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and turn again
the dispersed of Israel. I have appointed Thee for
a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be their salvation
unto the end of the earth.'(6)
CHAP.
CXXIII. "Again in Isaiah, if you have ears to hear it,
God, speaking of Christ in parable, calls Him Jacob and Israel.
He speaks thus: 'Jacob is my servant, I will uphold Him; Israel is mine elect, I will put my
Spirit upon Him, and He shall bring forth judgment to the
Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall any
one hear His voice in the street: a bruised reed He shall
not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench; but He shall
bring forth judgment to truth: He shall shine,(10) and shall
not be broken till He have set judgment on the earth. And
in His name shall the Gentiles trust.'(11) As therefore
from the one man Jacob, who was surnamed Israel, all your
nation has been called Jacob and Israel; so
we from Christ, who begat us unto God, like Jacob, and Israel,
and Judah, and Joseph, and David, are called and are the true
sons of God, and keep the commandments of Christ."
CHAP.
CXXX. And by these
words He declares that we, the nations, rejoice with His people,--to
wit, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets, and,
in short, all of that people who are well-pleasing to God,
according to what has been already agreed on between us. But
we will not receive it of all your nation; since we know from
Isaiah(4) that the members of those who have transgressed
shall be consumed by the worm and unquenchable fire, remaining
immortal; so that they become a spectacle to all flesh. But
in addition to these, I wish, sir," said I, "to add some other passages from the very words of Moses, from which you
may understand that God has from of old dispersed all
men according to their kindreds and tongues; and out of all
kindreds has taken to Himself your kindred, a useless, disobedient,
and faithless generation; and has shown that those who were selected out
of every nation have obeyed His will through Christ,--whom
He calls also Jacob, and names Israel,--and these, then, as
I mentioned fully previously, must be Jacob and Israel. For
when He says, 'Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people,' He
allots the same inheritance to them, and
does not call them by the same name;(1) but when He says
that they as Gentiles rejoice with His people, He calls them
Gentiles to reproach you. For even as you provoked Him to
anger by your idolatry, so also
He has deemed those who were idolaters worthy of knowing His
will, and of inheriting His inheritance.
CHAP.
CXXXV. "And when Scripture says, 'I am the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel, who have made known Israel your King,'(1) will you not
understand that truly Christ is the everlasting King? For
you are aware that Jacob the son of Isaac was never a king.
And therefore Scripture
again, explaining to us, says what king is meant by Jacob
and Israel:
'Jacob is my Servant, I will uphold Him; and Israel is mine Elect, my soul shall
receive Him. I have
given Him my Spirit; and He shall bring forth judgment to
the Gentiles. He shall not cry, and His voice shall not
be heard without. The bruised reed He shall not break, and
the smoking flax He shall not quench, until He shall bring
forth judgment to victory. He shall shine, and shall not be
broken, until He set judgment on the earth. And
in His name shall the Gentiles trust.'(2) Then
is it Jacob the patriarch in whom the Gentiles and yourselves
shall trust? or is it not Christ? As, therefore, Christ is
the Israel and the Jacob, even so we,
who have been quarried out from the bowels of Christ, are
the true Israelitic race.
Irenaeus
–
AGAINST
HERESIES, BOOK III
CHAP.
V. 3. He, appearing
in these last times, the chief cornerstone, has
gathered into one, and united those that were far off and
those that were near;(2) that is, the circumcision and the
uncircumcision, enlarging Japhet, and placing him in the dwelling of Shem.(3)
CHAP.
X. 2. …men were taught to worship God after a new fashion, but not another god, because in truth there
is but "one God, who justifieth the circumcision by faith,
and the uncircumcision through faith."(7)
CHAP.
XI. 8. For this reason
were four principal covenants given to the human race:(3)
one, prior to the deluge, under Adam; the second, that after
the deluge, under Noah; the third, the giving of the law,
under Moses; the fourth, that which renovates man, and sums
up all things in itself by means of the Gospel, raising and
bearing men upon heavenly kingdom.
XII.
7. But when Peter saw
the vision, in which the voice from heaven said to him,
"What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common,"(5)
this happened [to teach him] that the God
who had, through the law, distinguished between clean and
unclean, was He who had purified the Gentiles through the
blood of His Son--He whom also Cornelius worshipped; to
whom Peter, coming
in, said, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter
of persons: but in every nation, he that feareth Him, and
worketh righteousness, is acceptable to Him."(6)
CHAP.
XII. 11. But if any one, "doting about questions,"(5)
do imagine that what the apostles have declared about God
should be allegorized, let him consider my previous statements,
in which I set forth
one God as the Founder and Maker of all things, and destroyed
and laid bare their allegations; and he
shall find them agreeable to the doctrine of the apostles,
and so to maintain what they used to teach, and were persuaded
of, that there is one God, the Maker of all things. And when he shall have
divested his mind of such error, and of that blasphemy against
God which it implies, he
will of himself find reason to acknowledge that both the Mosaic
law and the grace of the new covenant, as both fitted for
the times [at which they were given], were bestowed by one
and the same God for the benefit of the human race. 12.
For all those who are of a perverse mind, having been set against the
Mosaic legislation, judging it to be dissimilar and contrary
to the doctrine of the Gospel, have not applied themselves
to investigate the causes of the difference of each covenant…
Ignorance of the Scriptures and of the dispensation of God has brought
all these things upon them. And in the course of this
work I shall touch upon the
cause of the difference of the covenants on the one hand,
and, on the other hand, of their unity and harmony.
CHAP.
XX. 7. But the law
coming, which was given by Moses, and testifying of sin
that it is a sinner, did truly take away his (death's) kingdom,
showing that he was no king, but a robber; and it revealed
him as a murderer. It
laid, however, a weighty burden upon man, who had sin in himself,
showing that he was liable to death. For as the law was spiritual,
it merely made sin to stand out in relief, but did not destroy
it.
CHAP.XXII.
4. And the prophet, too, indicates the same, saying, "instead
of fathers, children have been born unto thee."(8) For
the Lord, having been born "the First-begotten of the
dead,"(9) and receiving into His bosom the ancient fathers, has regenerated them
into the life of God, He having been made Himself the
beginning of those that live, as Adam became the beginning
of those who die.(10)
Irenaeus
–
AGAINST
HERESIES, BOOK IV
CHAP.
IV. 2. Since, then, the
law originated with Moses, it terminated with John as a necessary
consequence. Christ had come to fulfil it: wherefore
"the law and the prophets were" with them "until
John."(2) And therefore Jerusalem,
taking its commencement from David,(3) and fulfilling its
own times, must have an end of legislation(4) when the
new covenant was revealed. For God does all things by measure
and in order; nothing is unmeasured with Him, because
nothing is out of order.
CHAP.
V. 4. Righteously also
the apostles, being of the race of Abraham, left the ship
and their father, and followed the Word. Righteously also do we, possessing the same faith as Abraham, and taking
up the cross as Isaac did the wood?
CHAP.
VIII. 1. Vain, too,
is [the effort of] Marcion and his followers when they [seek
to] exclude Abraham from the inheritance, to whom the
Spirit through many men, and now by Paul, bears witness, that
"he believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness."(14)
And the Lord [also
bears witness to him,] in the first place, indeed, by raising
up children to him from the stones, and making his seed as
the stars of heaven, saying, "They shall come from the
east and from the west, from the north and from the south,
and shall recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the
kingdom of heaven;"(15) and then again by saying to the
Jews, "When ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
and all the prophets in the kingdom of heaven, but you yourselves
cast out."(1) This, then, is a clear point, that
those who disallow his salvation, and frame the idea of another
God besides Him who
made the promise to Abraham, are outside the kingdom of God,
and are disinherited from [the gift of] incorruption, setting
at naught and blaspheming God, who introduces, through Jesus Christ, Abraham to the kingdom of heaven,
and his seed, that is, the Church, upon which also is conferred
the adoption and the inheritance promised to Abraham. ...2. And therefore the Lord reproved those who unjustly blamed Him for
having healed upon the Sabbath-days.
For He did not make void, but fulfilled the law, by performing
the offices of the high priest, propitiating God for men,
and cleansing the lepers, healing the sick, and
Himself suffering death, that exiled man might go forth from
condemnation, and might return without fear to his own inheritance.
CHAP.
IX. 3. For the new
covenant having been known and preached by the prophets,
He who was to carry
it out according to the good pleasure of the Father was also
preached; having been revealed to men as God pleased; that
they might always make progress through believing in Him,
and by means of the [successive] covenants, should gradually
attain to perfect salvation.(1) For there is one salvation and one God;
but the precepts which form the man are numerous, and the steps which lead man to God are not a few. It is allowable for an earthly and temporal king, though he is [but] a
man, to grant to his subjects greater advantages at times:
shall not this then be lawful for God, since He is [ever]
the same, and is always willing to confer a greater [degree
of] grace upon the human race, and to honour continually
with many gifts those who please Him?
CHAP.
XI. 1. But that
it was not only the
prophets and many righteous men, who, foreseeing through the
Holy Spirit His advent, prayed that they might attain to that period
in which they should see their Lord face to face, and
hear His words, the Lord has made manifest, when He says to
His disciples, "Many prophets and righteous men have
desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen
them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not
heard them."(6) In what way, then, did they desire both
to hear and to see, unless they had foreknowledge of His future
advent? But how could they have foreknown it, unless they
had previously received foreknowledge from Himself?
And how do the Scriptures testify of Him, unless all things had ever been
revealed and shown to believers by one and the same God through
the Word.
Irenaeus
–
AGAINST
HERESIES, BOOK IV
CHAP.
XII. 2. But that this
is the first and greatest commandment, and that the next [has
respect to love] towards our neighbour, the Lord has taught,
when He says that the entire law and the prophets hang upon
these two commandments. Moreover, He did not Himself bring
down [from heaven] any other commandment greater than this
one, but renewed this very same one to His disciples, when
He enjoined them to love God with all their heart, and others
as themselves… 3. As in the law, therefore, and in the Gospel [likewise], the first and
greatest commandment is, to love the Lord God with the whole
heart, and then there follows a commandment like to it, to
love one's neighbour as one's self; the author of the
law and the Gospel is shown to be one and the same. For the precepts of an absolutely perfect
life, since they are the same in each Testament, have
pointed out [to us] the same God,
who certainly has promulgated particular laws adapted for
each; but the more prominent and the greatest [commandments],
without which salvation cannot [be attained], He has exhorted
[us to observe] the same in both. 4. The
Lord, too, does not do away with this [God], when He shows
that the law was not derived from another God, expressing
Himself as follows to those who were being instructed by Him,
to the multitude and to His disciples: "The scribes and
Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. All, therefore, whatsoever they
bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after
their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy
burdens, and lay them upon men's shoulders; but they themselves
will not so much as move them with a finger."(4) He therefore did not throw blame upon that
law which was given by Moses, when He exhorted it to be observed,
Jerusalem being as yet in
safety; but He did throw blame upon those persons, because
they repeated indeed the words of the law, yet were without
love. And for this reason were they held as being unrighteous
as respects God, and as respects their neighbours. As also
Isaiah says: "This people honoureth Me with their lips,
but their heart is far from Me: howbeit in vain do they worship
Me, teaching the doctrines and the commandments of men."(5)
He does not call the law given by Moses commandments
of men, but the traditions of the elders themselves which
they had invented, and in upholding which they made the
law of God of none effect, and were on this account also not
subject to His Word…For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."(6) And
how is Christ the end of the law, if He be not also the final
Cause of it? …5. Now,
that the law did beforehand teach mankind the necessity of
following Christ, He does Himself make manifest, when He replied
as follows to him who asked Him what he should do that he
might inherit eternal life: "If thou wilt enter into
life, keep the commandments."(8) But upon the other
asking "Which?"" again the
Lord replies: "Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do
not steal, do not bear false witness, honour father and mother,
and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,"--setting
as an ascending series (velut gradus) before
those who wished to follow Him, the precepts of the law, as
the entrance into life; and What He then said to one He
said to all. But when the former said, "All these have
I done" (and most likely he had not kept them, for in
that case the Lord would not have said to him, "Keep
the commandments"), the Lord, exposing his covetousness,
said to him, "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that
thou hast, and distribute to the poor; and come, follow me;"
promising to those who would act thus, the portion belonging
to the apostles (apostolorum partem).
CHAP.
XIII. 1. And that the Lord did not abrogate the natural [precepts]
of the law, by which man(2) is justified, which also those
who were justified by faith, and who pleased God, did observe previous to the giving of the
law, but that He extended and fulfilled them, is shown from
His words. "For," He remarks, "it has been
said to them of old time, Do not commit adultery. But I say
unto you, That every one who hath looked upon a woman to lust
after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his
heart."(3) And again: "It has been said, Thou shalt
not kill. But I say unto you, Every one who is angry with
his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment."(4)
And, "It hath been said, Thou shalt not forswear thyself.
But I say unto you, Swear not at all; but let your conversation
be, Yea, yea, and Nay, nay."(5) And other statements of a like nature. For all these do not contain or imply an opposition to and an overturning
of the [precepts] of the past, as Marcion's followers
do strenuously maintain; but
[they exhibit] a fulfilling and an extension of them,
as He does Himself declare: "Unless your righteousness
shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not
enter into the kingdom of heaven."(6) For what meant
the excess referred to? In
the first place, [we must] believe not only in the Father,
but also in His Son now revealed; for He it is who leads man
into fellowship and unity with God. In the next place, [we
must] not only say, but we must do; for they said, but did
not. And [we must] not only abstain from evil deeds, but even
from the desires after them. Now He did not teach us these
things as being opposed to the law, but as fulfilling the
law, and implanting in us the varied righteousness of the
law. That would have been contrary to the law, if He had
commanded His disciples to do anything which the law had prohibited.
But this which He did
command--namely, not only to abstain from things forbidden
by the law, but even from longing after them--is not contrary
to [the law], as I have remarked, neither is it the utterance
of one destroying the law, but of one fulfilling, extending,
and affording greater scope to it… 3. Now all these [precepts], as I have already
observed, were not the injunctions] of one doing away with
the law, but of one fulfilling, extending, and widening it
among us; just as if one should say, that the
more extensive operation of liberty implies that a more complete
subjection and affection towards our Liberator had been implanted
within us… 4. Inasmuch,
then, as all natural precepts are common to us and to them
(the Jews), they had in them indeed the beginning and origin;
but in us they have received growth and completion. For
to yield assent to God, and to follow His Word, and to love
Him above all, and one's neighbour as one's self (now man
is neighbour to man), and to abstain from every evil deed,
and all other things of a like nature which are common to both [covenants],
do reveal one and the same God. But this is our Lord, the
Word of God, who in the first instance certainly drew slaves
to God, but afterwards He set those free who were subject
to Him, as He does Himself declare to His disciples: "I will not now call you servants, for
the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called
you friends, for all things which I have heard from My Father
I have made known."(2) For in that which He says, "I
will not now call you servants," He indicates in the
most marked manner that it was Himself who did originally
appoint for men that bondage with respect to God through the
law, and then afterwards conferred upon them freedom.
CHAP.
XIV. 2. Thus it was, too, that God formed man at the first,
because of His munificence; but chose the patriarchs for the
sake of their salvation; and prepared
a people beforehand, teaching the headstrong to follow God;
and raised up prophets upon earth, accustoming
man to bear His Spirit [within him], and to hold communion
with God: He Himself, indeed, having need of nothing,
but granting communion with Himself to those who stood in
need of it, and sketching
out, like an architect, the plan of salvation to those that
pleased Him. And He did Himself furnish guidance to those
who beheld Him not in Egypt,
while to those who became unruly in the desert He promulgated
a law very suitable [to their condition]. Then, on the people
who entered into the good land He bestowed a noble inheritance;
and He killed the fatted calf for those converted to the Father,
and presented them with the finest robe.(3) Thus, in a variety of ways, He adjusted the
human race to an agreement with salvation.
NOTE:
The quote below is included here because it contains an interesting
explanation of why and how it was allowable for Moses to grant
certain indulgences (such as for divorce) when he gave God’s
Law to the people. The interesting point is that Irenaeus
points out that, in his view, on occasion the apostles do
the same. Specifically, on issues or particulars where God
did not himself give a rule, permission was granted. Likewise,
Irenaeus implies that God himself did not give a rule concerning
multiple marriages in the Mosaic Covenant, and so Moses gave
his own judgment, as Paul does with regard to different issues
in the New Covenant. However, it must be pointed out that
Irenaeus means that the apostles did so only on specific points,
not creating allowance as a general rule. Consequently, if
Irenaeus’ explanation is to be accepted, it still would not
equate to a license to make allowances beyond those specific
and very few occurrences on which the apostles themselves
did so.
CHAP.
XV. 2. And not only so, but the Lord also showed that certain precepts
were enacted for them by Moses, on account of their hardness
[of heart], and because of their unwillingness to be obedient,
when, on their saying to Him, "Why then did Moses command
to give a writing of divorcement, and to send away a wife?"
He said to them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts
he permitted these things to you; but from the beginning it
was not so;"(6) thus exculpating Moses as a faithful
servant, but acknowledging one God, who from the beginning
made male and female, and reproving them as hard-hearted and
disobedient. And therefore it was that they received from
Moses this law of divorcement, adapted to their hard nature.
But why say I these things concerning the Old Testament? For
in the New also are the apostles found doing this very thing,
on the ground which has been mentioned, Paul plainly declaring,
But these things I say, not the Lord."(7) And again:
"But this I speak by permission, not by commandment."(8)
And again: "Now, as concerning virgins, I have no commandment
from the Lord; yet I give my judgment, as one that hath
obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful."(9) But further,
in another place he says: "That Satan tempt you not for
your incontinence."(10) If, therefore, even
in the New Testament, the apostles are found granting certain
precepts in consideration of human infirmity, because of the
incontinence of some, lest such persons, having grown
obdurate, and despairing altogether of their salvation, should
become apostates from God,--it
ought not to be wondered at, if also in the Old Testament
the same God permitted similar indulgences for the benefit
of His people, drawing them on by means of the ordinances
already mentioned, so that they might obtain the gift of salvation
through them, while they obeyed the Decalogue, and being restrained
by Him, should not revert to idolatry, nor apostatize from
God, but learn to love Him with the whole heart.
Irenaeus
–
AGAINST
HERESIES, BOOK IV
CHAP.
XVI. 2. ...Moreover,
all the rest of the multitude of those righteous men who lived
before Abraham, and of those patriarchs who preceded Moses,
were justified independently of the things above mentioned,
and without the law of Moses. As also Moses himself says to the people in Deuteronomy: "The
LORD thy God formed a covenant in Horeb. The
LORD formed not this covenant with your fathers, but for you."(9)
3. Why, then, did the Lord not form the covenant
for the fathers? Because "the law was not established
for righteous men."(10) But the righteous fathers had
the meaning of the Decalogue written in their hearts and souls,(11)
that is, they loved the God who made them, and did no injury
to their neighbour. There was therefore no occasion that they
should be cautioned by prohibitory mandates (correptoriis
literis),(12) because they
had the righteousness of the law in themselves. …5.
The laws of bondage, however, were one by
one promulgated to the people by Moses, suited for their
instruction or for their punishment, as Moses himself declared:
"And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you
statutes and judgments."(3) These things, therefore, which were given for bondage, and for a sign
to them, He cancelled
by the new covenant of liberty. But
He has increased and widened those laws which are natural,
and noble, and common to all…
CHAP.
XXI. 1. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.
Know ye therefore,
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. But the Scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, announced
beforehand unto Abraham, that in him all nations should be
blessed. So then they which be of faith shall be blessed
with faithful Abraham."(10) For
which [reasons the apostle] declared that this man was not
only the prophet of faith, but
also the father of those who from among the Gentiles believe
in Jesus Christ, because his faith and ours are one and the
same: for he believed
in things future, as if they were already accomplished,
because of the promise of God; and
in like manner do we also, because of the promise of God,
behold through faith that inheritance [laid up for us] in
the [future] kingdom.
CHAP.
XXII. 2. For it was not merely for those who believed on Him in the time of Tiberius
Caesar that Christ came, nor did the Father exercise His providence
for the men only who are now alive, but for all men altogether,
who from the beginning, according to their capacity, in their
generation have both feared and loved God, and practised justice
and piety towards their neighbours, and have earnestly desired
to see Christ, and to hear His voice. Wherefore He shall,
at His second coming,
first rouse from their sleep all persons of this description,
and shall raise them up, as well as the rest who shall
be judged, and give
them a place in His kingdom. For it is truly "one God
who" directed the patriarchs towards His dispensations,
and "has justified the circumcision by faith, and the
uncircumcision through faith."(5) For as in
the first we were prefigured, so, on the other hand, are they
represented in us, that is, in the Church, and receive the recompense for those things
which they accomplished.
CHAP.
XXV. 3. For it was requisite that certain facts should be
announced beforehand by the fathers in a paternal manner,
and others prefigured by the prophets in a legal one, but
others, described after the form of Christ, by those who have
received the adoption; while in one God are all things shown
forth. For although
Abraham was one, he did in himself prefigure the two covenants,
in which some indeed have sown, while others
have reaped; for it is said, "In this is the saying
true, that it is one 'people' who sows, but another who shall
reap;"(4) but it is one God who bestows things suitable
upon both--seed to the sower, but bread for the reaper to
eat. Just as it is one that planteth, and another who watereth,
but one God who giveth the increase.(5) For
the patriarchs and prophets sowed the word [concerning] Christ,
but the Church reaped, that is, received the fruit. For
this reason, too, do these very men (the prophets) also pray
to have a dwelling-place in it, as Jeremiah says, "Who
will give me in the desert the last dwelling-place?"(6)
in order that both the sower and the reaper
may rejoice together in the kingdom of Christ, who is present with all those who were from the beginning approved by
God, who granted them His Word to be present with them.(7)
…CHAP. XXVI. 1. Hence His human nature could not(10) be understood,
prior to the consummation of those things which had been predicted,
that is, the advent of Christ. And therefore it was said
to Daniel the prophet: "Shut up the words, and seal the
book even to the time of consummation, until many learn, and
knowledge be completed. For at that time, when the dispersion shall
be accomplished, they shall know all these things."(11)
But Jeremiah also says, "In the last days they shall
understand these things."(12) For every prophecy, before its fulfilment,
is to men [full of] enigmas and ambiguities. But when
the time has arrived, and the prediction has come to pass,
then the prophecies have a clear and certain exposition. And
for this reason, indeed, when at this present time the law
is read to the Jews, it is like a fable; for
they do not possess the explanation of all things pertaining
to the advent of the Son of God, which took place in human
nature; but when it
is read by the Christians, it is a treasure, hid indeed
in a field, but brought to light by the cross of Christ, and
explained, both enriching the understanding of men, and showing
forth the wisdom of God and declaring His dispensations with
regard to man, and forming the kingdom of Christ beforehand,
and preaching by anticipation the inheritance of the holy
Jerusalem…
CHAP.
XXVII. 2. It was for
this reason, too, that the Lord descended into the regions
beneath the earth, preaching His advent there also, and [declaring]
the remission of sins received by those who believe in Him.(5)
Now all those believed in Him who had hope towards Him, that
is, those who proclaimed His advent, and submitted to His
dispensations, the righteous men, the prophets, and the patriarchs,
to whom He remitted sins in the same way as He did to us,
which sins we should not lay to their charge, if we would
not despise the grace of God.
CHAP.
XXXIII. 10. And indeed
the prophets, along with other things which they predicted,
also foretold this... 14. And those
of them who declare that God would make a new covenant(26)
with men, not such as that which He made with the fathers
at Mount Horeb, and would give to men a new heart and
a new spirit;" and again, "And remember ye not the
things of old: behold, I make new things which shall now arise,
and ye shall know it; and I will make a way in the desert,
and riven in a dry land, to give drink to my chosen people,
my people whom I have acquired, that they may show forth my
praise,"(1)--plainly
announced that liberty which distinguishes the new covenant,
and the new wine which is put into new bottles,(2) [that
is], the faith which is in Christ...
CHAP.
XXXIV. 2. Wherefore
He said, "Think not that I have come to destroy the law
or the prophets; I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For
verily I say unto you, Until heaven and earth pass away, one
jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law and the prophets
till all come to pass."(7) For by His advent He Himself
fulfilled all things, and does still fulfil in the Church
the new covenant foretold by the law, onwards to the consummation
[of all things]. To this effect also Paul, His apostle, says
in the Epistle to the Romans, "But now,(8) without the
law, has the righteousness of God been manifested, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets; for the just shall live by faith."(9)
But this fact, that the just shall live by faith, had been previously
announced(10) by the prophets.
CHAP.
XXXVI. 8. But since
He who chose the patriarchs and those [who lived under the
first covenant], is the same Word of God who did both visit
them through the prophetic Spirit, and us also who have been
called together from all quarters by His advent; in addition
to what has been already said, He truly declared, "Many
shall come from the east and from the west, and shall recline
with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
But the children of the kingdom shall go into outer darkness;
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."(7) If, then, those who do believe in Him through
the preaching of His apostles throughout the east and west
shall recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom
of heaven, partaking with them of the [heavenly] banquet,
one and the same God is set forth as He who did indeed choose the patriarchs, visited
also the people, and called the Gentiles.