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| Chapter X
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Chapter X.
But observe what he alleges as a proof of his
statement: “Christians at first were few in number, and
held the same opinions; but when they grew to be a great multitude,
they were divided and separated, each wishing to have his own
individual party:3461
for this was
their object from the beginning.” That Christians at first
were few in number, in comparison with the multitudes who subsequently
became Christian, is undoubted; and yet, all things considered, they
were not so very few.3462
| 3462 καί τοι οὐ
πάντη ἦσαν
ὀλίγοι. | For what
stirred up the envy of the Jews against Jesus, and aroused them to
conspire against Him, was the great number of those who followed Him
into the wilderness,—five thousand men on one occasion, and four
thousand on another, having attended Him thither, without including the
women and children. For such was the charm3463
of Jesus’ words, that not only were
men willing to follow Him to the wilderness, but women
also, forgetting3464
| 3464 The reading in
Spencer’s and the Benedictine edition is ὑποτεμνομένας,
for which Lommatzsch reads ὑπομεμνημένας. | the weakness of
their sex and a regard for outward propriety3465
in
thus following their Teacher into desert places. Children, too,
who are altogether unaffected by such emotions,3466
either following their parents, or perhaps attracted also by His
divinity, in order that it might be implanted within them, became His
followers along with their parents. But let it be granted that
Christians were few in number at the beginning, how does that help to
prove that Christians would be unwilling to make all men believe the
doctrine of the Gospel?E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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