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| Chapter XLVI.—The Word in the world before Christ.
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Chapter XLVI.—The Word in the world
before Christ.
But lest some should, without reason, and for the
perversion of what we teach, maintain that we say that Christ was born
one hundred and fifty years ago under Cyrenius, and subsequently, in the
time of Pontius Pilate, taught what we say He taught; and should cry out
against us as though all men who were born before Him were irresponsible
—let us anticipate and solve the difficulty. We have been taught that Christ is the
first-born of God, and we have declared above that He is the Word of whom
every race of men were partakers; and those who lived reasonably1863
| 1863 μετὰ
λόγου, “with
reason,” or “the Word.” [This remarkable passage on the
salvability and accountability of the heathen is noteworthy. See, on St.
Matt. xxv. 32, Morsels of Criticism by the
eccentric but thoughtful Ed. King, p. 341. London, 1788]. | are
Christians, even though they have been thought atheists; as, among the
Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus, and men like them; and among the
barbarians, Abraham, and Ananias, and Azarias, and Misael, and Elias, and
many others whose actions and names we now decline to recount, because we
know it would be tedious. So that even they who lived before Christ, and
lived without reason, were wicked and hostile to Christ, and slew those
who lived reasonably. But who, through the power of the Word, according
to the will of God the Father and Lord of all, He was born of a virgin as
a man, and was named Jesus, and was crucified, and died, and rose again,
and ascended into heaven, an intelligent man will be able to comprehend
from what has been already so largely said. And we, since the proof of
this subject is less needful now, will pass for the present to the proof
of those things which are urgent.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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