Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter CXIV.—Some rules for discerning what is said about Christ. The circumcision of the Jews is very different from that which Christians receive.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter CXIV.—Some rules for
discerning what is said about Christ. The circumcision of the Jews is very
different from that which Christians receive.
“For the Holy Spirit sometimes brought about that
something, which was the type of the future, should be done clearly;
sometimes He uttered words about what was to take place, as if it was
then taking place, or had taken place. And unless those who read perceive
this art, they will not be able to follow the words of the prophets as
they ought. For example’s sake, I shall repeat some prophetic
passages, that you may understand what I say. When He speaks by Isaiah,
‘He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before the
shearer,’2376
He speaks as if the
suffering had already taken place. And when He says again, ‘I have
stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying
people;’2377
and when He says,
‘Lord, who hath believed our report?’2378
—the words are spoken as if announcing events which had
already come to pass. For I have shown that Christ is oftentimes called a
Stone in parable, and in figurative speech Jacob and Israel. And again,
when He says, ‘I shall behold the heavens, the works of Thy
fingers,’2379
unless I understand His
method of using words,2380
| 2380
Literally, “the operation of His words.” Editors have changed
τῶν λόγων into τὸν λόγον or τοῦ λόγου: but there is no
need of change. | I shall not understand intelligently, but
just as your teachers suppose, fancying that the Father of all, the
unbegotten God, has hands and feet, and fingers, and a soul, like a
composite being; and they for this reason teach that it was the Father
Himself who appeared to Abraham and to Jacob. Blessed therefore are we who have been
circumcised the second time with knives of stone. For your first
circumcision was and is performed by iron instruments, for you remain
hard-hearted; but our circumcision, which is the second, having been
instituted after yours, circumcises us from idolatry and from absolutely
every kind of wickedness by sharp stones, i.e., by the words [preached]
by the apostles of the corner-stone cut out without hands. And our hearts
are thus circumcised from evil, so that we are happy to die for the name
of the good Rock, which causes living water to burst forth for the hearts
of those who by Him have loved the Father of all, and which gives those
who are willing to drink of the water of life. But you do not comprehend
me when I speak these things; for you have not understood what it has
been prophesied that Christ would do, and you do not believe us who draw
your attention to what has been written. For Jeremiah thus cries:
‘Woe unto you! because you have forsaken the living fountain, and
have digged for yourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. Shall
there be a wilderness where Mount Zion is, because I gave Jerusalem a
bill of divorce in your sight?’2381
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
