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| Chapter II
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Chapter II.
Now, since we are upon the subject of Peter, and
of the teachers of Christianity to the circumcision, I do not deem it
out of place to quote a certain declaration of Jesus taken from the
Gospel according to John, and to give the explanation of the
same. For it is there related that Jesus said: “I
have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them
now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide
you into all the truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but
whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak.”3216
And when we inquire what were the
“many things” referred to in the passage which Jesus had to
say to His disciples, but which they were not then able to bear, I have
to observe that, probably because the apostles were Jews, and had been
trained up according to the letter of the Mosaic law, He was unable to
tell them what was the true law, and how the Jewish worship consisted
in the pattern and shadow of certain heavenly things, and how future
blessings were foreshadowed by the injunctions regarding meats and
drinks, and festivals, and new moons, and sabbaths. These were
many of the subjects which He had to explain to them; but as He saw
that it was a work of exceeding difficulty to root out of the mind
opinions that have been almost born with a man, and amid which he has
been brought up till he reached the period of maturity, and which have
produced in those who have adopted them the belief that they are
divine, and that it is an act of impiety to overthrow them; and to
demonstrate by the superiority of Christian doctrine, that is, by the
truth, in a manner to convince the hearers, that such opinions were but
“loss and dung,” He postponed such a task to a future
season—to that, namely, which followed His passion and
resurrection. For the bringing of aid unseasonably to those who
were not yet capable of receiving it, might have overturned the idea
which they had already formed of Jesus, as the Christ, and the Son of
the living God. And see if there is not some well-grounded reason
for such a statement as this, “I have many things to say unto
you, but ye cannot hear them now;” seeing there are many points
in the law which require to be explained and cleared up in a spiritual
sense, and these the disciples were in a manner unable to bear, having
been born and brought up amongst Jews. I am of opinion, moreover,
that since these rites were typical, and the truth was that which was
to be taught them by the Holy Spirit, these words were added,
“When He is come who is the Spirit of truth, He will lead you
into all the truth;” as if He had said, into all the truth about
those things which, being to you but types, ye believed to constitute a
true worship which ye rendered unto God. And so, according to the
promise of Jesus, the Spirit of truth came to Peter, saying to him,
with regard to the four-footed beasts, and creeping things of the
earth, and fowls of the air: “Arise, Peter; kill, and
eat.” And the Spirit came to him while he was still in a
state of superstitious ignorance; for he said, in answer to the divine
command, “Not so Lord; for I have never yet eaten anything common
or unclean.” He instructed him, however, in the true and
spiritual meaning of meats, by saying, “What God hath cleansed,
that call not thou common.” And so, after that vision, the
Spirit of truth, which conducted Peter into all the truth, told him the
many things which he was unable to bear when Jesus was still with him
in the flesh. But I shall have another opportunity of explaining
those matters, which are connected with the literal acceptation of the
Mosaic law.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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