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| Chapter LXI—Wisdom is begotten of the Father, as fire from fire.
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Chapter LXI—Wisdom is begotten of the
Father, as fire from fire.
“I shall
give you another testimony, my friends,” said I, “from the
Scriptures, that God begat before all creatures a Beginning,2167
| 2167 Or, “in the beginning,
before all creatures.” [Justin’s reference to Josh.
i. 13–15 deserves special consideration; for he supposes
that the true Joshua (Jesus) was the substance, and the
true “captain of salvation,” of whom this one was but a
shadow (Heb. iv. 8, margin), type, and
pledge. See cap. lxii.] | [who was] a certain rational power
[proceeding] from Himself, who is called by the Holy Spirit, now the
Glory of the Lord, now the Son, again Wisdom, again an Angel, then God,
and then Lord and Logos; and on another occasion He calls Himself
Captain, when He appeared in human form to Joshua the son of Nave (Nun).
For He can be called by all those names, since He ministers to the
Father’s will, and since He was begotten of the Father by an act of
will;2168
| 2168 The act of will or
volition is on the part of the Father. | just as we see2169
| 2169 Or, “Do we not
see,” etc. | happening among ourselves: for when we give
out some word, we beget the word; yet not by abscission, so as to lessen
the word2170
| 2170 The word,
λόγος translated
“word,” means both the thinking power or reason which
produces ideas and the expression of these ideas. And Justin passes here
from the one meaning to the other. When we utter a thought, the utterance
of it does not diminish the power of thought in us, though in one sense
the thought has gone away from us. | [which remains] in us,
when we give it out: and just as we see also happening in the case of a
fire, which is not lessened when it has kindled [another], but remains
the same; and that which has been kindled by it likewise appears to exist
by itself, not diminishing that from which it was kindled. The Word of
Wisdom, who is Himself this God begotten of the Father of all things, and
Word, and Wisdom, and Power, and the Glory of the Begetter, will bear
evidence to me, when He speaks by Solomon the following: ‘If I
shall declare to you what happens daily, I shall call to mind events from
everlasting, and review them. The Lord made me the
beginning
of His ways for His works. From everlasting He established me in the
beginning, before He had made the earth, and before He had made the
deeps, before the springs of the waters had issued forth, before the
mountains had been established. Before all the hills He begets me. God
made the country, and the desert, and the highest inhabited places under
the sky. When He made ready the heavens, I was along with Him, and when
He set up His throne on the winds: when He made the high clouds strong,
and the springs of the deep safe, when He made the foundations of the
earth, I was with Him arranging. I was that in which He rejoiced; daily
and at all times I delighted in His countenance, because He delighted in
the finishing of the habitable world, and delighted in the sons of men.
Now, therefore, O son, hear me. Blessed is the man who shall listen to
me, and the mortal who shall keep my ways, watching2171
| 2171 The mss. of Justin read
“sleeping,” but this is regarded as the mistake of some
careless transcriber. | daily at my doors, observing the posts
of my ingoings. For my outgoings are the outgoings of life, and [my] will
has been prepared by the Lord. But they who sin against me, trespass
against their own souls; and they who hate me love death.’2172
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