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| Chapter LXII.—The words “Let Us make man” agree with the testimony of Proverbs.
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Chapter LXII.—The words “Let Us make
man” agree with the testimony of Proverbs.
“And the same sentiment was expressed, my
friends, by the word of God [written] by Moses, when it indicated to us,
with regard to Him whom it has pointed out,2173
| 2173 Justin, since he is of opinion that the
Word is the beginning of the universe, thinks that by these words,
“in the beginning,” Moses indicated the Word, like many other
writers. Hence also he says in Ap. i. 23, that Moses declares the Word
“to be begotten first by God.” If this explanation does not
satisfy, read, “with regard to Him whom I have pointed out”
(Maranus). | that God speaks in the creation of man with the
very same design, in the following words: ‘Let Us make man after
our image and likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the heaven, and over the cattle, and over all
the earth, and over all the creeping things that creep on the earth. And
God created man: after the image of God did He create him; male and
female created He them. And God blessed them, and said, Increase and
multiply, and fill the earth, and have power over it.’2174
And that you may not change the [force of the]
words just quoted, and repeat what your teachers assert,—either
that God said to Himself, ‘Let Us make,’ just as we, when
about to do something, oftentimes say to ourselves, ‘Let us
make;’ or that God spoke to the elements, to wit, the earth and
other similar substances of which we believe man was formed, ‘Let
Us make,’—I shall quote again the words narrated by Moses
himself, from which we can indisputably learn that [God] conversed with
some one who was numerically distinct from Himself, and also a rational
Being. These are the words: ‘And God said, Behold, Adam has become
as one of us, to know good and evil.’2175
In saying, therefore, ‘as one of us,’ [Moses] has
declared that [there is a certain] number of persons associated with one
another, and that they are at least two. For I would not say that the
dogma of that heresy2176
which is said to be among you2177
| 2177 Or, “among us.”
Maranus pronounces against this latter reading for the following reasons:
(1.) The Jews had their own heresies which supplied many things to the
Christian heresies, especially to Menander and Saturninus. (2.) The sect
which Justin here refutes was of opinion that God spoke to angels. But
those angels, as Menander and Saturninus invented, “exhorted
themselves, saying, Let us make,” etc. (3.) The expression διδάσκαλοι suits
the rabbins well. So Justin frequently calls them. (4.) Those teachers
seem for no other cause to have put the words in the angels’ mouths
than to eradicate the testimony by which they proved divine persons.
| is true, or that the teachers of it can prove that [God] spoke to
angels, or that the human frame was the workmanship of angels. Proverbs" title="228" id="viii.iv.lxii-p6.2"/>But this
Offspring, which was truly brought forth from the Father, was with the
Father before all the creatures, and the Father communed with Him; even
as the Scripture by Solomon has made clear, that He whom Solomon calls
Wisdom, was begotten as a Beginning before all His creatures and as
Offspring by God, who has also declared this same thing in the revelation
made by Joshua the son of Nave (Nun). Listen, therefore, to the following
from the book of Joshua, that what I say may become manifest to you; it
is this: ‘And it came to pass, when Joshua was near Jericho, he
lifted up his eyes, and sees a man standing over against him. And Joshua
approached to Him, and said, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And
He said to him, I am Captain of the Lord’s host: now have I come.
And Joshua fell on his face on the ground, and said to Him, Lord, what
commandest Thou Thy servant? And the Lord’s Captain says to Joshua,
Loose the shoes off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy
ground. And Jericho was shut up and fortified, and no one went out of it.
And the Lord said to Joshua, Behold, I give into thine hand Jericho, and
its king, [and] its mighty men.’ ”2178
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