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| Chapter LII.—Jacob predicted two advents of Christ.
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Chapter LII.—Jacob predicted two
advents of Christ.
“And it
was prophesied by Jacob the patriarch2112
| 2112 [Bible:Gen.49.11 Bible:Gen.49.18 Bible:Gen.49.24">Gen. xlix. 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 18,
24. These texts are frequently referred to by Justin.]
| that there would be two advents of Christ, and that in the first
He would suffer, and that after He came there would be neither prophet
nor king in your nation (I proceeded), and that the nations who believed
in the suffering Christ would look for His future appearance. And for
this reason the Holy Spirit had uttered these truths in a parable, and
obscurely: for,” I added, “it is said, ‘Judah, thy
brethren have praised thee: thy hands [shall be] on the neck of thine
enemies; the sons of thy father shall worship thee. Judah is a
lion’s whelp; from the germ, my son, thou art sprung up. Reclining,
he lay down like a lion, and like [a lion’s] whelp: who shall raise
him up? A ruler shall not depart from Judah, or a leader from his thighs,
until that which is laid up in store for him shall come; and he shall be
the desire of nations, binding his foal to the vine, and the foal of his
ass to the tendril of the vine. He shall wash his garments in wine, and
his vesture in the blood of the grape. His eyes shall be bright with2113
| 2113 Or, “in comparison
of.” | wine, and his teeth white like milk.’2114
Moreover, that in your nation there
never failed either prophet or ruler, from the time when they began until
the time when this Jesus Christ appeared and suffered, you will not
venture shamelessly to assert, nor can you prove it. For though you
affirm that Herod, after2115
| 2115
ἀφ’ οὗ; many translated
“under whom,” as if ἐφ’ οὗ. This would be
erroneous. Conjectured also ἔφυγε for
ἔπαθεν.
| whose [reign] He suffered, was an Ashkelonite, nevertheless you
admit that there was a high priest in your nation; so that you then had
one who presented offerings according to the law of Moses, and observed
the other legal ceremonies; also [you had] prophets in succession until
John, (even then, too, when your nation was carried captive to Babylon,
when your land was ravaged by war, and the sacred vessels carried off);
there never failed to be a prophet among you, who was lord, and leader,
and ruler of your nation. For the Spirit which was in the prophets
anointed your kings, and established them. But after the manifestation
and death of our Jesus Christ in your nation, there was and is nowhere
any prophet: nay, further, you ceased to exist under your own king, your
land was laid waste, and forsaken like a lodge in a vineyard; and the
statement of Scripture, in the mouth of Jacob, ‘And He shall be the
desire of nations,’ meant symbolically His two advents, and that
the nations would believe in Him; which facts you may now at length
discern. For those out of all the nations who are pious and righteous
through the faith of Christ, look for His future appearance.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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