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| Chapter CXXV.—He explains what force the word Israel has, and how it suits Christ.
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Chapter CXXV.—He explains what force
the word Israel has, and how it suits Christ.
“I wish, sirs,” I said,
“to learn from you what is the force of the name Israel.” And
as they were silent, I continued: “I shall tell you what I know:
for I do not think it right, when I know, not to speak; or, suspecting
that you do know, and yet from envy or from voluntary ignorance deceive
yourselves,2435
| 2435 The reading
here is ἐπίσταμαι αὐτός,
which is generally abandoned for ἀπατᾶν
ἑαυτούς. | to be continually solicitous; but I
speak all things simply and candidly, as my Lord said: ‘A sower
went forth to sow the seed; and some fell by the wayside; and some among
thorns, and some on stony ground, and some on good ground.’2436
I must speak, then, in the hope of finding good
ground somewhere; since that Lord of mine, as One strong and powerful,
comes to demand back His own from all, and will not condemn His steward
if He recognises that he, by the knowledge that the Lord is powerful and
has come to demand His own, has given it to every bank, and has not
digged for any cause whatsoever. Accordingly the name Israel signifies
this, A man who overcomes power; for Isra is a man overcoming, and
El is power.2437
| 2437 [On
Justin’s Hebrew, see Kaye, p. 19.] | And that Christ
would act so when He became man was foretold by the mystery of
Jacob’s wrestling with Him who appeared to him, in that He
ministered to the will of the Father, yet nevertheless is God, in that He
is the first-begotten of all creatures. For when He became man, as I
previously remarked, the devil came to Him—i.e., that power which
is called the serpent and Satan—tempting Him, and striving to
effect His downfall by asking Him to worship him. But He destroyed and
overthrew the devil, having proved him to be wicked, in that he asked to
be worshipped as God, contrary to the Scripture; who is an apostate from
the will of God. For He answers him, ‘It is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shall thou serve.’2438
Then, overcome and convicted, the devil
departed at that time. But since our Christ was to be numbed, i.e., by
pain and experience of suffering, He made a previous intimation of this
by touching Jacob’s thigh, and causing it to shrink. But Israel was
His name from the beginning, to which He altered the name of the blessed
Jacob when He blessed him with His own name, proclaiming thereby that all
who through Him have fled for refuge to the Father, constitute the
blessed Israel. But you, having understood none of this, and not being
prepared to understand, since you are the children of Jacob after the
fleshly seed, expect that you shall be assuredly saved. But that you
deceive yourselves in such matters, I have proved by many words.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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