Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter IX.—Continuation: ignorance of Satan. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter IX.—Continuation: ignorance
of Satan.
Seeing
these things, thou wast in utter perplexity.1334
1334 Literally, “thou wast dizzy in the
head.” | And thou wast ignorant that it was a virgin that
should bring forth; but the angels’ song of praise struck thee with
astonishment, as well as the adoration of the Magi, and the appearance of
the star. Thou didst revert to thy state of [wilful] ignorance, because
all the circumstances seemed to thee trifling;1335
1335 Literally, “on account of the
paltry things.” | for thou didst deem the
swaddling-bands, the circumcision, and the nourishment by means of milk
contemptible:1336 these things appeared to thee unworthy
of God. Again, thou didst behold a man who remained forty days and nights
without tasting human food, along with ministering angels at whose
presence thou didst shudder, when first of all thou hadst seen Him
baptized as a common man, and knewest not the reason thereof. But after
His [lengthened] fast thou didst again assume thy wonted audacity, and
didst tempt Him when hungry, as if He had been an ordinary man, not
knowing who He was. For thou saidst, “If thou be the Son of God,
command that these stones be made bread.”1337 Now, this expression, “If thou be the Son,” is an
indication of ignorance. For if thou hadst possessed real knowledge, thou
wouldst have understood that the Creator can with equal ease both create
what does not exist, and change that which already has a being. And thou
temptedst by means of hunger1338 Him who
nourisheth all that require food. And thou temptedst the very “Lord
of glory,”1339 forgetting in thy
malevolence that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” For if thou hadst
known that He was the Son of God, thou wouldst also have understood that
He who had kept his1340
1340 Some
insert, “corruptible.” | body from feeling any want
for forty days and as many nights, could have also done the same for
ever. Why, then, does He suffer hunger? In order to prove that He had
assumed a body subject to the same feelings as those of ordinary men. By
the first fact He showed that He was God, and by the second that He was
also man.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|