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| Chapter LXXXVIII.—Christ has not received the Holy Spirit on account of poverty.
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Chapter LXXXVIII.—Christ has not
received the Holy Spirit on account of poverty.
“Now, it is
possible to see amongst us women and men who possess gifts of the Spirit
of God; so that it was prophesied that the powers enumerated by Isaiah
would come upon Him, not because He needed power, but because these would
not continue after Him. And let this be a proof to you, namely, what I
told you was done by the Magi from Arabia, who as soon as the Child was
born came to worship Him, for even at His birth He was in possession of
His power; and as He grew up like all other men, by using the fitting
means, He assigned its own [requirements] to each development, and was
sustained by all kinds of nourishment, and waited for thirty years, more
or less, until John appeared before Him as the herald of His approach,
and preceded Him in the way of baptism, as I have already shown. And
then, when Jesus had gone to the river Jordan, where John was baptizing,
and when He had stepped into the water, a fire2297
| 2297 [The Shechinah probably attended
the descent of the Holy Spirit, and what follows in the note seems a
gratuitous explanation. The Ebionite corruption of a truth need not be
resorted to. See chap. cxxviii: The fire in the bush.] Justin learned
this either from tradition or from apocryphal books. Mention is made of a
fire both in the Ebionite Gospel and in another publication called
Pauli prædicatio, the readers and users of which denied that the
rite of baptism had been duly performed, unless quam mox in aquam
descenderunt, statim super aquam ignis appareat. | was
kindled in the Jordan; and when He came out of the water, the Holy Ghost
lighted on Him like a dove, [as] the apostles of this very Christ of ours
wrote. Now, we know that he did not go to the river because He stood in
need of baptism, or of the descent of the Spirit like a dove; even as He
submitted to be born and to be crucified, not because He needed such
things, but because of the human race, which from Adam had fallen under
the power of death and the guile of the serpent, and each one of which
had committed personal transgression. For God, wishing both angels and
men, who were endowed with free-will, and at their own disposal, to do
whatever He had strengthened each to do, made them so, that if they chose
the things acceptable to Himself, He would keep them free from death and
from punishment; but that if they did evil, He would punish each as He
sees fit. For it was not His entrance into Jerusalem sitting on an ass,
which we have showed was prophesied, that empowered Him to be Christ, but
it furnished men with a proof that He is the Christ; just as it was
necessary in the time of John that men have
proof, that they
might know who is Christ. For when John remained2298
by the Jordan, and preached the baptism of repentance, wearing only a
leathern girdle and a vesture made of camels’ hair, eating nothing
but locusts and wild honey, men supposed him to be Christ; but he cried
to them, ‘I am not the Christ, but the voice of one crying; for He
that is stronger than I shall come, whose shoes I am not worthy to
bear.’2299
And when Jesus came to the
Jordan, He was considered to be the son of Joseph the carpenter; and He
appeared without comeliness, as the Scriptures declared; and He was
deemed a carpenter (for He was in the habit of working as a carpenter
when among men, making ploughs and yokes; by which He taught the symbols
of righteousness and an active life); but then the Holy Ghost, and for
man’s sake, as I formerly stated, lighted on Him in the form of a
dove, and there came at the same instant from the heavens a voice, which
was uttered also by David when he spoke, personating Christ, what the
Father would say to Him: ‘Thou art My Son: this day have I begotten
Thee;’2300
[the Father] saying that His
generation would take place for men, at the time when they would become
acquainted with Him: ‘Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten
thee.’ ”2301
| 2301 The
repetition seems quite superfluous. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
