Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XIII—Refutation of the opinion, that Paul was the only apostle who had knowledge of the truth.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter XIII—Refutation of the
opinion, that Paul was the only apostle who had knowledge of the truth.
1. With regard to those (the Marcionites) who allege
that Paul alone knew the truth, and that to him the mystery was
manifested by revelation, let Paul himself convict them, when he says,
that one and the same God wrought in Peter for the apostolate of the
circumcision, and in himself for the Gentiles.3527
Peter, therefore, was an apostle of that very God whose was also
Paul; and Him whom Peter preached as God among those of the circumcision,
and likewise the Son of God, did Paul [declare] also among the Gentiles.
For our Lord never came to save Paul alone, nor is God so limited in
means, that He should have but one apostle who knew the dispensation of
His Son. And again, when Paul says, “How beautiful are the feet of
those bringing glad tidings of good things, and preaching the Gospel of
peace,”3528
he shows clearly that it was not merely one, but there were many
who used to preach the truth. And again, in the Epistle to the
Corinthians, when he had recounted all those who had seen God3529
| 3529 All the previous editors
accept the reading Deum without remark, but Harvey argues that it
must be regarded as a mistake for Dominum. He scarcely seems,
however, to give sufficient weight to the quotation which immediately
follows. | after the resurrection, he
says in
continuation, “But whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so
ye believed,”3530
acknowledging as one and
the same, the preaching of all those who saw God3531
after the
resurrection from the dead.
2. And again, the Lord replied to Philip, who wished to
behold the Father, “Have I been so long a time with you, and yet
thou hast not known Me, Philip? He that sees Me, sees also the Father;
and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? For I am in the Father, and
the Father in Me; and henceforth ye know Him, and have seen
Him.”3532
To these men,
therefore, did the Lord bear witness, that in Himself they had both known
and seen the Father (and the Father is truth). To allege, then, that
these men did not know the truth, is to act the part of false witnesses,
and of those who have been alienated from the doctrine of Christ. For why
did the Lord send the twelve apostles to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel,3533
if these men did not know the truth? How
also did the seventy preach, unless they had themselves previously known
the truth of what was preached? Or how could Peter have been in
ignorance, to whom the Lord gave testimony, that flesh and blood had not
revealed to him, but the Father, who is in heaven?3534
Just, then, as “Paul [was] an apostle, not of men, neither
by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father,”3535
[so with the rest;]3536
| 3536 Some such supplement seems necessary, as Grabe suggests,
though Harvey contends that no apodosis is requisite. | the Son
indeed leading them to the Father, but the Father revealing to them the
Son.
3. But that Paul acceded to [the request of] those who
summoned him to the apostles, on account of the question [which had been
raised], and went up to them, with Barnabas, to Jerusalem, not without
reason, but that the liberty of the Gentiles might be confirmed by them,
he does himself say, in the Epistle to the Galatians: “Then,
fourteen years after, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking
also Titus. But I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that
Gospel which I preached among the Gentiles.”3537
And again he says, “For an hour we did give place to
subjection,3538
| 3538 Latin,
“Ad horam cessimus subjectioni” (Gal. ii.
5). Irenæus gives it an altogether different meaning from
that which it has in the received text. Jerome says that there was as
much variation in the copies of Scripture in his day with regard to the
passage,—some retaining, others rejecting the negative (Adv.
Marc. v. 3). | that the truth of the gospel might continue
with you.” If, then, any one shall, from the Acts of the Apostles,
carefully scrutinize the time concerning which it is written that he went
up to Jerusalem on account of the forementioned question, he will find
those years mentioned by Paul coinciding with it. Thus the statement of
Paul harmonizes with, and is, as it were, identical with, the testimony
of Luke regarding the apostles.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
