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| Chapter XXXVIII
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Chapter
XXXVIII.
The few next remarks: “You, O sincere
believers,3302
find fault with us,
because we do not recognise this individual as God, nor agree with you
that he endured these (sufferings) for the benefit of mankind, in order
that we also might despise punishment.” Now, in answer to
this, we say that we blame the Jews, who have been brought up under the
training of the law and the prophets (which foretell the coming of
Christ), because they neither refute the arguments which we lay before
them to prove that He is the Messiah,3303
adducing such refutation as a defence of their unbelief; nor yet, while
not offering any refutation, do they believe in Him who was the subject
of prophecy, and who clearly manifested through His disciples, even
after the period of His appearance in the flesh, that He underwent
these things for the benefit of mankind; having, as the object of His
first advent, not to condemn men and their actions3304
before He had instructed them, and pointed
out to them their duty,3305
| 3305 μαρτύρασθαι
περὶ τῶν
πρακτέων. | nor to chastise the
wicked and save the good, but to disseminate His doctrine in an
extraordinary3306
manner, and with
the evidence of divine power, among the whole human race, as the
prophets also have represented these things. And we blame them,
moreover, because they did not believe in Him who gave evidence of the
power that was in Him, but asserted that He cast out demons from the
souls of men through Beelzebub the prince of the demons; and we blame
them because they slander the philanthropic character of Him, who
overlooked not only no city, but not even a single village in Judea,
that He might everywhere announce the kingdom of God, accusing Him of
leading the wandering life of a vagabond, and passing an anxious
existence in a disgraceful body. But there is no disgrace in
enduring such labours for the benefit of all those who may be able to
understand Him.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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