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| Chapter LXV
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Chapter LXV.
And why do I say “to all?” For
even with His own apostles and disciples He was not perpetually
present, nor did He constantly show Himself to them, because they were
not able without intermission3372
to receive His
divinity. For His deity was more resplendent after He had
finished the economy3373
| 3373 τὴν
οικονομίαν
τελεσαντος. | (of
salvation): and this Peter, surnamed Cephas, the first-fruits as
it were of the apostles, was enabled to behold, and along with him the
twelve (Matthias having been substituted in room of Judas); and after
them He appeared to the five hundred brethren at once, and then to
James, and subsequently to all the others besides the twelve apostles,
perhaps to the seventy also, and lastly to Paul, as to one born out of
due time, and who knew well how to say, “Unto me, who am less
than the least of all saints, is this grace given;” and probably
the expression “least of all” has the same meaning with
“one born out of due time.” For as no one could
reasonably blame Jesus for not having admitted all His apostles to the
high mountain, but only the three already mentioned, on the occasion of
His transfiguration, when He was about to manifest the splendour which
appeared in His garments, and the glory of Moses and Elias talking with
Him, so none could reasonably object to the statements of the apostles,
who introduce the appearance of Jesus after His resurrection as having
been made not to all, but to those only whom He knew to have
received eyes capable of seeing His resurrection. I think,
moreover, that the following statement regarding Him has an apologetic
value3374
| 3374 χρήσιμον δ᾽
οἶμαι πρὸς
ἀπολογίαν
τῶν
προκειμένων. | in reference to our subject, viz.:
“For to this end Christ died, and rose again, that He might be
Lord both of the ‘dead and living.’”3375
For observe, it is conveyed in these
words, that Jesus died that He might be Lord of the dead; and that He
rose again to be Lord not only of the dead, but also of the
living. And the apostle understands, undoubtedly, by the dead
over whom Christ is to be Lord, those who are so called in the first
Epistle to the Corinthians, “For the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible;”3376
and by the living, those who are to be changed, and who are different
from the dead who are to be raised. And respecting the living the
words are these, “And we shall be changed;” an expression
which follows immediately after the statement, “The dead shall be
raised first.”3377
| 3377 Cf. 1 Cor. xv. 52 with 1 Thess. iv. 16. | Moreover, in
the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, describing the same change in
different words, he says, that they who sleep are not the same as those
who are alive; his language being, “I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that ye sorrow not,
even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus
died, and rose again, even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God
bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord,
that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not
prevent them that are asleep.”3378
The
explanation which appeared to us to be appropriate to this passage, we
gave in the exegetical remarks which we have made on the first Epistle
to the Thessalonians.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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